North Korea fires three ballistic missiles into the sea

On Tuesday, Pyongyang test-fired three ballistic missiles – two Scuds and one Rodong – in an apparent “armed protest” against South Korea’s decision to deploy an advanced USA antimissile system in the country to deal with increasing threats from the communist country. Although the Musudan did not fly very far, some experts said the great height it achieved may mean the missile is capable of ranges up to about 3,000 km and could theoretically strike key military bases in the us territory of Guam.

According to the South Korean military, the two Scuds flew between 500 and 600 kilometres (310-370 miles) into the Sea of Japan, while the Rodong was sacked about an hour later.

The tests were monitored by Kim Jong-Un and the range of the missiles was limited to simulate pre-emptive attacks on South Korean ports and airfields hosting USA military “hardware”, the North’s official KCNA news agency said.

“This smells political rather than technical to me”, Ms. Hanham, a senior research associate at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Calif., said.

“But China is not foolish enough to alienate itself from South Korea to take sides with North Korea”.

Eleven days after South Korea agreed to let the United States install an advanced missile defense system in the country, North Korea appeared to express its displeasure by launching three ballistic missiles into the sea.

Seoul and Washington started talks on a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system deployment after North Korea conducted a fourth nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch earlier this year.

“Following its illegal nuclear test on 6 January, this latest act by (North Korea) will heighten tensions on the Korean Peninsula and undermine the peace and security of the wider region”, she said in a statement. The North regularly threatens to destroy the Japan, South Korea and the South’s main ally, the United States.

“The threat to our national security has grown very quickly in a short period of time”, South Korea’s Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn said, according to the BBC.

“The latest launch is a breach of the UN Security Council resolution and is extremely hazardous to shipping and aircraft and we have strongly protested”, Japanese officials said in a statement.