Seoul says North Korea fires 3 medium-range missiles

North Korea fired three ballistic missiles from the western town of Hwangju toward Japan shortly after noon Monday, according to South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff.

“North Korea chose to launch the missile at this time in an attempt to interfere in the discussions about North Korea at the G20 summit”, Zheng Jiyong, director of the Center for Korean Studies at the Shanghai-based Fudan University, told the Global Times.

The commmand did not further specify whether the intermediate-range missiles were Rodong as assessed by South Korea’s military, or the longer-range Musudan missile, which is believed to be cabale of reaching the US territory of Guam.

Such tests are fairly common when worldwide attention is turned to Northeast Asia, and this one came as world leaders gathered in eastern China for the G-20 summit of advanced and emerging economies.

North Korea’s latest test comes during the middle of the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Hangzhou, China, where tensions on the Korean peninsula are among the hot-button issues being discussed by world leaders on the sidelines.

Xi also told Park that Beijing opposed the proposed deployment of a THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea, which Seoul and the United States have said is created to counter an increasing missile threat from North Korea.

The United States “strongly” condemned the latest missile launches and called on North Korea to refrain from actions and rhetoric that raise tensions in the region, US State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.

Last month, worries about the North’s weapons programs deepened after a missile from a North Korean submarine flew about 310 miles, the longest distance achieved by the North for such a weapon.

North Korea has been banned from conducting missile tests, but that hasn’t stopped them from launching several lately.

If this is true, it would mean China was ignoring the global sanctions banning trade with North Korea, which the communist state has been reluctant to enforce in the past.

Defense Minister Tomomi Inada said they fell off the northwestern coast of Hokkaido.

Xi also expressed his concern over the THAAD system, saying that “mishandling the issue is not conducive to strategic stability in the region, and could intensify conflicts”, Xinhua reported.

On Saturday, Park told those gathered at a business forum held in Vladivostok, Russia, “If we can not prevent North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons, the nuclear threat will become a reality soon”.

South Korean officials reportedly said the missiles were “mid-range Rodong missiles” that flew about 620 miles without “any prior navigational warning”, CNN reported.

It appears the country was attempting to flex its military muscle as world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, continue to meet for the G20 summit in China.

A senior USA official called the launches “reckless” and a threat to civil aviation and local maritime commerce, and a US statement strongly condemned the launches, which came as China, North Korea’s only global ally, hosted the G20 summit.

After the United Nations Security Council in March unanimously approved perhaps the toughest set of punitive measures imposed on the North in two decades, the North appeared to ramp up its missile tests.