North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles toward the sea off its east coast on Monday, South Korea's military said, in Pyongyang's fourth missile launch in a month. The missiles were launched at about 9:20 a.m. local time (0020 GMT) from near Pyongyang, and one type flew more than 900 km (559 miles), South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said, according to Reuters. Japan's coast guard separately reported two projectiles, believed to be ballistic missiles, that appeared to have already fallen.
What happened on Monday morning?
South Korea's military said the launches involved missiles of different types, fired from near the North Korean capital toward waters off the country's east coast, Reuters reported. Japan's coast guard gave a matching initial account of two projectiles that had fallen by the time of its report. No damage or casualties were reported in the accounts published on Monday morning.
South Korea's National Security Office convened an emergency meeting and condemned the launches as violations of United Nations Security Council resolutions, urging Pyongyang to stop, Reuters reported. North Korea has been under UN sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.
Why did South Korea link the launch to its own hypersonic test?
A spokesperson for South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launches appeared to be a show of force in response to South Korea's successful hypersonic missile test, as well as a demonstration of missile capabilities, according to Reuters. That assessment is South Korea's — North Korea had not published its own account of Monday's launches in the reporting available at publication time.
Last week, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung oversaw his country's first test-firing of a domestically developed hypersonic missile, in what Reuters described as a rare public showcasing of a missile test by a South Korean president. North Korea last launched a ballistic missile on October 3; its state media said that test was a hypersonic missile supervised by leader Kim Jong Un.
How frequent have North Korea's tests become?
Reuters reported that Pyongyang has conducted missile tests on more than 10 occasions this year, including four in the last month. The launches also followed a border mine blast last month that wounded three South Korean soldiers; Seoul said the mines had been planted by North Korea and demanded an apology, while Pyongyang dismissed the claim and accused South Korea of provocation, Reuters reported.
One analyst cited by Reuters, former South Korean defence ministry official Song Seong-jong of Daejeon University, argued that the unusually frequent tests were intended to raise Pyongyang's leverage ahead of a potential summit between Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump. That is an analyst's interpretation, not an official statement from either government.
The core facts of Monday's launch — the time, origin near Pyongyang, flight distance and missile types — are South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff account as reported by Reuters, corroborated on the projectiles by Japan's coast guard in the same wire report. The motive assessment is attributed to South Korea's military spokesperson. No North Korean statement on Monday's launches had been reported at publication time.
