by Theleaders-Online | October 2, 2019 2:29 am
SEOUL: North Korea fired unidentified short-range projectiles toward the East Sea today, ahead of the envisioned resumption of the stalled denuclearisation talks with the United States (US), Yonhap news agency reported, citing the South Korea’s military.
The projectiles were launched from an area in the eastern coastal town of Wonsan earlier in the day, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said without providing further details, such as their type, flight range and maximum altitude.
Sources said the North is believed to have fired two projectiles, and the JCS spotted one of the firings at 7.11 am.
“Our military is monitoring the situation in case of additional launches and maintaining a readiness posture,” the JCS said in a release.
According to foreign media reports, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference that North Korea launched two ballistic missiles and one of them fell into the country’s exclusive economic zone.
The firing came a day after the North’s First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said that Pyongyang and Washington agreed to resume working-level nuclear talks this week. The two sides will have “preliminary contact” on Friday and working-level negotiations the following day, Choe said without disclosing the venue.
The US State Department only said the two sides plan to “meet within the next week.”
The nuclear talks have been stalled since the breakdown of the summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi in February.
It is the 11th such launches by the North so far this year, as it has carried out missile or rocket firings since May in succession after an 18-month hiatus. The last one took place on Sept 10 when it is believed to have test-fired two or three projectiles from what it dubbed its “super-large” multiple rocket launcher system.
Wednesday’s test-firing also came a day after South Korea officially marked its introduction of F-35A stealth fighters for the first time during the Armed Forces Day ceremony.
Bernama
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