North Korea test-launches barrage of missiles: Seoul

Replicas of a North Korean Scud-B missile (C) and South Korean Hawk surface-to-air missiles are displayed at the Korean War Memorial in Seoul on May 29, 2017. (Photos by AFP)

North Korea has test-fired several projectiles which are thought to be surface-to-ship missile, says Seoul.

“North Korea fired multiple unidentified projectiles, assumed to be surface-to-ship missiles, this morning from the vicinity of Wonsan, Gangwon province,” said a statement released by the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) early on Thursday.  

Noting that the missiles flew for some 200 kilometers, the JCS stressed that it is “maintaining full preparedness” and has “beefed up surveillance and vigilance against the possibility of additional provocations.”

The statement added that South Korean President Moon Jae-in has also been informed over the North’s latest missile test.

Pyongyang conducted its previous missile launch on May 29 by firing a short-range ballistic missile believed to be a Scud-class missile that landed in the Sea of Japan after flying around 450 kilometers.

'North's ICBMs can range the US'

Meanwhile, the director of the US Missile Defense Agency warned that Pyongyang’s continued ballistic missile tests have become cause for concern for Washington and its allies.

“It is incumbent on us to assume that North Korea today can range the United States with an ICBM carrying a nuclear warhead,” said Vice-Admiral James Syring while addressing Congress.

This undated picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on May 28, 2017 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C-in white shirt) watching the test of a new anti-aircraft guided weapon system. 

On June 3, the United Nations Security Council imposed a fresh array of sanctions on North Korea in response to a number of missile tests carried out by Pyongyang this year.

Unsettled by North Korean missile and nuclear programs, the US has adopted a war-like posture, sending a strike group and conducting joint military drills with North Korea’s regional adversaries Japan and South Korea.

American officials have indicated that military intervention in North Korea is an option on the table.