North Korea fired two suspected ballistic missiles eastward on Friday, South Korean military said, after Pyongyang publicly warned earlier in the day of a “stronger and certain” response to the new US sanctions.
According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), the short-range projectiles were launched from Uiju in North Pyongan Province, a northwestern region bordering China, and flew around 430 kilometres at an altitude of 36 kilometres, according to Yonhap News Agency.
At 2.41 p.m., it detected one of the missiles, and at 2.52 p.m., it detected the other.
According to officials, the missiles flew at a top speed of around Mach 6, or six times the speed of sound.
The intelligence agencies of South Korea and the United States are conducting a thorough investigation to gather more information, according to the JCS.
This is the North’s third display of force this year.
On January 5 and Tuesday, the North claimed to have fired hypersonic missiles.
According to the JCS, South Korea’s military is monitoring related North Korean movements and maintaining a firm readiness posture.
Pyongyang issued the warning earlier in the day, after Washington imposed sanctions on six North Koreans involved in the regime’s weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the US Indo-Pacific Command stated that it is aware of the missile launches but believes they are ineffective “not pose an immediate threat to American personnel or territory or to our allies”.
