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N. Korea fires 4 short-range rockets into West Sea

April 3, 2015

Seen here is North Korea’s test-firing of a short-range missile reported by the country’s Korean Central News Agency on July 27, 2014. (Yonhap file photo)

SEOUL, April 3 (Yonhap) — North Korea test-fired four short-range missiles into the West Sea on Friday in an apparent saber-rattling against the ongoing Seoul-Washington military exercise, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

The North Korean military “launched four short-range projectiles presumed to have a range of some 140 kilometers into the West Sea in succession between 4:15 p.m. and 5 p.m. today from Dongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province,” the JCS said in a brief statement.

Friday’s launch came after the bellicose regime’s test-firing of a rocket of the same kind the previous day, the JCS added, without further elaboration.

“What the North fired are believed to be KN-02 ground-to-ship missiles, factoring in their range, speed and trajectory,” a JCS officer said on condition of anonymity. “Some of the rockets appear to have landed inland in its own territory, which is not usual.”

Dongchang-ri is where the North’s missile test site is located, though it was not immediately confirmed whether the North fired the rockets Friday from the facility.

Friday’s firing “appears to be the North’s provocations in opposition to the ongoing Seoul-Washington joint military exercise and civic groups’ move to launch anti-Pyongyang leaflets,” the JCS said.

The joint annual Foal Eagle field training exercise between South Korea and the U.S. has been under way since March 2 as part of the allies’ efforts to improve the combined forces’ operation and combat capabilities to deter threats from the communist country. The drill is to run until April 24, with the allies also having staged their joint war game Key Resolve from March 2-13.

Repeating its long-held claims that the exercises are “dress rehearsals” for a northward invasion with nuclear weapons, the North has made good on its threats of harsh retaliation against “hostile” forces.

On the first day of the Seoul-Washington exercises, Pyongyang fired two short-range Scud-C type missiles. Two weeks later, the communist country also test-fired seven ground-to-air missiles into the East Sea.

Dismissing North Korea’s claims, the allies have stressed the exercises have been staged on a regular basis and that they are defensive in nature, aimed solely at bolstering readiness against a possible invasion by North Korea.