North Korea has fired four ballistic missiles from its long-range missile site, the South’s military says, nearly a month after the test of another ballistic missile. The exact type of missile was not immediately clear.
The missiles were launched at 7:36 a.m. local time on Monday from the Tongchang-ri long-range missile site. The Japanese government said 4 ballistic missiles were fired, though their exact type is still unclear.
South Korea’s military initially told the Yonhap news agency that at least one of the missiles “could” have been an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), but officials later said that the probability of an ICBM test were “low”. Further analysis is pending.
The four missiles flew about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) before they fell into the sea off North Korea’s eastern coast. The Japanese government, which condemned the missile tests, said three of the missiles fell into the waters of Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone, but there were no reports of damage.
Responding to the missile tests, South Korea’s National Security Council convened an emergency meeting at 9 a.m. Both South Korea and the United States promptly and strongly condemned the tests, which the U.S. State Department said were in violation of UN resolutions.
Tongchang-ri, which is also known as Dongchang-ri or the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, was previously used in February 2016 to put an Earth observation satellite into orbit. The launch was condemned by the international community, which considered it a long-range missile test in disguise.
Last month, North Korea fired a medium- or intermediate-range ballistic missile from the city of Kusŏng in the country’s northwest. It marked North Korea’s first missile test since the inauguration of Trump, who joined Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a late-night appearance to condemn the test.
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