North Korea fires two ballistic missiles, one may have fallen on land
Al Jazeera
The latest launches come as US, Japan and South Korea wrap up three days of military exercises dubbed ‘Freedom Edge’.
North Korea has fired two ballistic missiles and the second may have failed and blown up, possibly raining debris inland, South Korea’s military said.
Monday’s launches came a day after Pyongyang promised “offensive and overwhelming” responses to new military drills staged by the United States, South Korea and Japan.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the missiles were launched 10 minutes apart in a northeasterly direction from the town of Jangyon in southeastern North Korea.
The military said the first missile flew 600km (370 miles) and the second for 120km (75 miles), but did not say where they landed. North Korea typically test-fires missiles towards its eastern waters, but the second missile’s flight distance was too short to reach that far.
Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Lee Sung-joon later told a briefing there appeared to have been problems with the second missile and that if it exploded, its debris would probably have scattered on the ground.
