MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd July, 2023) North Korea launched several cruise missiles toward the Yellow Sea early on Saturday, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing South Korea's military.
The media cited the Joint Chiefs of Staff as saying that intelligence agencies of South Korea and the United States were analyzing the launches, which occurred around 4:00 a.m. local time (19:00 GMT on Friday), to determine the type of missiles and other details.
The latest launch came three days after Pyongyang launched two short-range ballistic missiles toward the Sea of Japan, the report said.
North Korea carried out its previous missile launch on July 12. The new-type Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile is believed to have flown over 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) at a maximum altitude of over 6,000 kilometers on a lofted trajectory.
On Friday, the South Korean Defense Ministry threatened Pyongyang with "the end of the North Korean regime" in the event of a nuclear attack against Seoul after the North said that the deployment of US nuclear assets in the region could be a sufficient reason to use nuclear arms.
On Thursday, North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam criticized the deployment of a US nuclear ballistic missile submarine in South Korea earlier in the week, saying that Pyongyang could potentially consider it a sufficient basis for the use of nuclear arms for self-defense.
The US's USS Kentucky, an Ohio-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine, made port in Busan on Tuesday, in the southeast of South Korea. On the same day, the meeting of the two countries' Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) took place, during which South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and his US counterpart, Joe Biden, reaffirmed their commitment to deterring North Korea.
