It comes as North Korea announced it would be holding a session of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the country’s parliament, on 10 April. Analysts say the meeting will involve almost 700 of the country’s leaders in one spot.
North Korea: North Korea leader Kim Jong-un (Photo: IANS)
North Korea on Saturday fired two projectiles presumed to be short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast, according to the Seoul military.
The projectiles were fired from North Pyongan province into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, without providing further details.
“The military is monitoring for additional launches and maintaining readiness,” it added.
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Japan’s defence ministry said the North launched what appeared to be “ballistic missile-like object(s)”, adding there had been no indication of anything coming down in Japanese territory or its exclusive economic zone.
It comes as North Korea announced it would be holding a session of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the country’s parliament, on 10 April. Analysts say the meeting will involve almost 700 of the country’s leaders in one spot.
Earlier in the month, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has overseen a “long-range artillery” drill on Tuesday after Pyongyang threatened to demonstrate a new weapon.
South Korea had said that North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles on Monday, but it was not immediately clear if the two incidents were the same.
The report did not elaborate on the details of the weapons used at the training, but photos released by the state media showed a rocket being fired from what appeared to be a super-large multiple rocket launcher North Korea tested last year, Yonhap News Agency said.
TIn 2019, during the 10-day training, North Korea raised tensions with its own missile and other weapons tests. But North Korea’s typical harsh rhetoric over the drills largely focused on South Korea, not the United States, in a suggestion that it’s still interested in resuming nuclear talks with the US.
The DPRK criticised the South Korea-US joint military drills as a rehearsal for a northward invasion, test-firing short-range projectiles into the East Sea before and during the drills to protest against it.
(With inputs from agecny)
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