MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th July, 2019) What North Korea launched early on Thursday was two short-range missiles, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
Earlier in the day, South Korean media reported that North Korea had fired two unidentified projectiles that flew 267 miles and fell into the Sea of Japan.
"[The North] fired one short-range missile at around 5:34 a.m. [20:34 GMT on Wednesday] and the other at 5:57 a.m., from Hodo Peninsula near its eastern coastal town of Wonsan into the East Sea [Sea of Japan]," the JCS said, as quoted by the Yonhap news agency.
A JCS officer said, as quoted by the news agency, the missiles had been fired from a transporter erector launcher (TEL) and flew at an altitude of 50 kilometers (31 miles). One of them flew 430 kilometers (267 miles), while the other flew a little bit farther, the officer pointed out.
"We believe that [North Korean leader] Kim Jong Un has recently stayed in the region, and summertime military drills are now under way in the North. We have been closely monitoring the situation," the officer pointed out.
Apart from that, he noted that additional analysis was required for checking if the missiles were ballistic and if they were the same type that North Korea fired in May.
The Japanese Kyodo news agency reported, citing a government source, that the missiles had not reached Japan's exclusive economic zone and presented no threat to the country's security.
Moreover, a senior US government official told Yonhap that Washington had been aware of reports about a short-range missile fired by North Korea.
North Korea previously carried out several missile launches in May.
However, since then, there have been some developments in the deadlocked US-North Korean denuclearization dialogue. Particularly, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with US President Donald Trump at the village of Panmunjom at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas. During their meeting, Kim and Trump agreed to intensify bilateral contacts at the working level.
