North Korea launches multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward sea

SEOUL, South Korea, April 20, (AP): North Korea launched multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea on Sunday, its neighbors said, days after the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog warned that North Korea was making "very serious” advances in efforts to build nuclear weapons. The missiles fired from the North's Sinpo area flew about 140 kilometers (87 miles) each in a direction toward the country's eastern waters, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

It said South Korea maintains a readiness to repel any provocations by North Korea and is closely exchanging information with the US and Japan. In an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, senior South Korean officials expressed concerns about North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile tests and urged it to stop them immediately.

Sunday's launches came hours before South Korean President Lee Jae Myung left the country to visit India and Vietnam. The US and Japanese militaries also said they detected the launches. The US Indo-Pacific Command said it remains committed to the defense of the US homeland and its allies in the region.

Japan's Defense Ministry said Tokyo strongly protested to Pyongyang, saying the launches threaten regional and international peace and violated UN Security Council resolutions that bans any ballistic activities by North Korea. Sinpo, the launch site, is an eastern coastal city in North Korea where it has a major shipyard use for building submarines.

South Korea’s military was analyzing whether the latest launches were made from a submarine, a land-based launcher or both platforms, according to South Korean media. Asked about where the missiles were launched, Japan's Deputy Minister of Defense Masahisa Miyazaki told reporters that Japan was analyzing launch details in coordination with the US and South Korea.

If the launches involved a submarine, it would mark North Korea’s first submarine-launched ballistic missile test in four years. North Korea obtaining a greater ability to fire missiles from underwater would be a worrying development because it’s difficult for its rivals to detect such launches in advance. Last year, North Korea unveiled a nuclear-powered submarine under construction for the first time.

Sunday's launches were the latest in North Korea's run of weapons tests this year. Last week, North Korea said leader Kim Jong Un supervised missile tests from the country’s destroyer. In the previous week, North Korea said it had three days of testing activities to examine ballistic missiles armed with cluster-bomb warheads and other new weapons systems.