North Korea fires short-range ballistic missiles for second time in a week

By Hyonhee Shin and Kantaro Komiya

SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday toward its east coast, South Korea and Japan said, days after Pyongyang unveiled a uranium enrichment facility and vowed to beef up its nuclear arsenal.

The missiles lifted off from Kaechon, north of the capital Pyongyang, at around 6:50 a.m. (2150 GMT Tuesday) in a northeast direction and flew about 400 km (249 miles), South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, without specifying how many were fired and where they landed.

"We strongly condemn North Korea's missile launch as a clear provocation that seriously threatens the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula," the JCS said in a statement, vowing an overwhelming response to any further provocations.

About 30 minutes after its first missile notice, Japan's coast guard said North Korea had fired another ballistic missile.Japanese Defence Minister Minoru Kihara said at least one of the missiles fell near the North's eastern inland coast and that the launches "cannot be tolerated".

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's office held a meeting to assess the security situation and told Pyongyang to halt all provocations, including its ongoing release of balloons carrying trash into the South.

Nuclear envoys of South Korea, Japan and the United States condemned the launch as a violation of U.N. resolutions during a phone call, vowing to sternly respond to any further provocations, Seoul's foreign ministry said in a statement.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said on X that it was aware of the launches and was consulting closely with Seoul and Tokyo.

EXPORT TO RUSSIA?

South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing unnamed sources, said the North could have used the KN-23 or Hwasong-11 short-range ballistic missiles, which Ukrainian authorities have identified as weapons likely to have been given to Russia.

When the North tested two of the missiles equipped with what it called a super-large warhead in July, one of them appeared to have fallen inland in North Korea, the JCS had said, citing the launch location and trajectory.

The North fired several short-range ballistic missiles last Thursday, the first such launch in more than two months, which it later described as a test of a new 600-mm multiple launch rocket system.

South Korea's JCS has said the launch might have been to test the weapons for export to Russia, amid intensifying military cooperation between the two countries.

The United States, South Korea and Ukraine, among other countries, have accused Pyongyang of supplying rockets and missiles to Moscow for use in the war in Ukraine, in return for economic and military assistance.

Moscow and Pyongyang have denied any illicit arms trade.

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, who is visiting Russia this week, met her counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Tuesday and discussed ways to promote bilateral ties, the Russian foreign ministry said on its website.

Sergei Shoigu, Russia's top security official, also visited Pyongyang last week and met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Wednesday's missile launches came days after Pyongyang for the first time showed images of centrifuges that produce fuel for its nuclear bombs, as Kim inspected a uranium enrichment facility and called for more weapons-grade material to boost the arsenal.

Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean studies in Seoul, said the launches could be designed to show off Pyongyang's missile capabilities while ratcheting up tensions ahead of the U.S. elections.

"They might have discussed weapons supplies during the recent exchange of visits in light of the escalation of the Ukraine war, and the launches could also be part of preparations for a seventh nuclear test," Yang said.

(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya in Tokyo and Hyonhee Shin in Seoul; Additional reporting by Mariko Katsumura in Tokyo; Editing by Ed Davies, Michael Perry and Gareth Jones)