Japan Condemns North Korea’s Alleged Launch of Short-Range Missiles

Japan’s Defense Ministry has condemned the alleged launch of two short-range missiles by North Korea, Japanese media report.

TOKYO (Sputnik) – The reported Thursday launch could have been carried out using Scud ballistic missiles, Japan’s Kyodo news agency said on Thursday citing Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani who did not exclude the possibility of more provocations on the part of Pyongyang.

Earlier on Thursday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that North Korea had fired two short-range missiles into East Sea (Sea of Japan).

The missiles were fired at around 05:20 a.m. local time on Thursday (about 21:00 GMT on Wednesday) from North Hwanghae Province in North Korea, the JCS said as cited by the South Korean Yonhap news agency. The missiles hit waters northeast of the port city of Wonsan, the South Korean military said.

On March 3, Yonhap reported citing South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun that several short-range missiles were fired from the North Korean Wonsan naval base. All of them reportedly fell into the sea.

The reported launches come in the wake of new sanctions introduced against North Korea by the UN Security Council earlier this month.

The sanctions came in response to Pyongyang’s January hydrogen bomb test, as well as the launch, a month later, of a long-range rocket to allegedly place a satellite into orbit, in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.