Editor TLN
The launch comes at one of the worst times in inter-Korean relations. On Tuesday, Pyongyang launched two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, off the peninsula’s eastern coast. “The intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States are analyzing the shots,” which occurred around 04:00 local time (19:00 GMT on Friday), the military hierarchy said.
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North Korea fired “several cruise missiles” into the Yellow Sea between China and the Korean Peninsula on Saturday, the Seoul Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
Diplomacy between Pyongyang and Seoul has long been stalled and the communist regime’s leader, Kim Jong Un, has called for speeding up the development of his arsenal, including nuclear weapons.
In response, the United States and South Korea have multiplied their joint military exercises, which have sometimes involved the deployment of strategic assets of the North American power.
This week a US nuclear submarine arrived at the South Korean port of Busan, the first to be deployed on the peninsula since 1981.
The North’s Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam said that “the deployment of the strategic nuclear submarine and other strategic assets may fall within the conditions of use of nuclear weapons specified in the (North Korea’s) law on nuclear force policy.”
Relations on the peninsula were also soured by the incident in which a US soldier crossed the guarded border between the two Koreas and is suspected of being in Pyongyang custody. A senior US military official said Thursday that he was “very concerned” about the treatment Private Travis King may receive.
“The Pentagon tried to contact the North Korean military about King’s situation, but got no response,” Matt Miller, a State Department spokesman, said Thursday.
King was due to return to the United States to face a military court, after having been imprisoned in South Korea for an assault.
