By Alex Jensen
SEOUL (AA) - North Korea has launched three ballistic missiles into open water in quick succession, according to South Korea’s military.
A statement from the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) claimed the missiles were fired shortly after midday Monday from North Hwanghae Province, indicating the projectiles flew eastward across the peninsula.
The JCS did not immediately make clear how far the missiles travelled. Late last month, the North tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile that travelled as far as Japan’s air defense identification zone.
Pyongyang is barred from testing ballistic missiles under several United Nations resolutions, and has already been hit with strengthened sanctions this year.
The timing of Monday’s launches suggested they were at least partly a response to efforts by South Korea and China to improve ties earlier in the day.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye held talks with her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hangzhou, following Beijing’s public opposition to the planned deployment of an American THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) anti-missile system in the South.
Seoul has consistently justified the move on the basis of North Korean provocations, and Park was quoted by local news agency Yonhap as telling Xi that Pyongyang’s actions have “seriously undermined peace in this region.”
China is seen as a key North Korean ally and the two sides grew noticeably closer after July’s announcement by Seoul and Washington that they would deploy a THAAD battery by the end of next year.