North Korea fires short-range missiles in first launch in two months

By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) -North Korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Thursday, South Korea's military said, the first such launch in more than two months. 

The missiles lifted off from Pyongyang at around 7:10 a.m. (2210 GMT Wednesday) and travelled about 360 km (225 miles) before plunging into the sea, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, without specifying how many were fired. 

"We strongly condemn North Korea's missile launch, which is a clear provocation that seriously threatens peace and stability on the Korean peninsula," they said in a statement. 

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who last week visited Seoul to reconfirm ties with South Korea ahead of his upcoming resignation, said Tokyo condemned the launch and lodged a protest against North Korea. 

"We continue to make utmost efforts for monitoring and cooperate with the U.S. and South Korea," Kishida said.

Nuclear envoys of South Korea, Japan and the United States talked by phone and called the launch a violation of U.N. resolutions, Seoul's foreign ministry said in a statement. They also pledged to respond to any North Korean provocations.

North Korea last fired a missile on July 1, when it claimed to have successfully tested a new tactical ballistic missile capable of carrying a 4.5-ton super-large warhead. 

The latest launch came days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to produce "exponentially" more nuclear weapons and ensure they were ready for use "at any given time." 

Kim late last month oversaw a test of an upgraded 240 mm rocket launcher system which "proved its superiority in mobility and strike concentration". He also inspected new "suicide drones" and called for the development of artificial intelligence for unmanned vehicles.

KIM HELPS RUSSIAN WAR EFFORT, US SAYS

Thursday's launch might be aimed at responding to recent South Korea-U.S. military drills or testing the missiles for export to Russia, a military spokesperson told a briefing.

North Korea faces accusations of supplying Russia with weapons including drones and ballistic missiles to be used in the war in Ukraine.   

Ukraine and the United States, among other countries and independent analysts, say that Kim is helping Russia in the war by supplying rockets and missiles in return for economic and other military assistance from Moscow. 

Conflict Armament Research (CAR), a UK-based organization that tracks the origins of weapons used in conflicts, said in a report this week that it had found more North Korean ballistic missiles in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including what it said was first public evidence that missiles produced this year in North Korea were being used in the conflict.

"The discovery of a 2024 production mark on one of the missiles reveals a short period between the production of these ballistic missiles and their use in Ukraine," CAR said.

The report said it was a Hwasong-11, a variant that Kim has said is being mass-produced and deployed to front-line North Korean units, according to state media.

Moscow and Pyongyang have denied the accusations, but pledged to boost military cooperation and signed a comprehensive strategic partnership at a summit in June.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Josh Smith in Seoul and Chang-Ran Kim, Kantaro Komiya and Kaori Kaneko in Tokyo; Additional reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Edward Davies, Stephen Coates, William Maclean)