*ISLAMABAD – Pyongyang fired two ballistic missiles on Wednesday, Seoulsaid, days after a similar launch that the nuclear-armed North described asa warning to the South over planned joint military drills with the UnitedStates.*
The two devices were fired from the Wonsan area on the east coast at dawnand flew around 250 kilometres into the sea, said South Korea’s JointChiefs of Staff.
“We stress a series of missile launches do not help ease tensions in theKorean Peninsula and urge the North to refrain from such acts,” they saidin a statement, while the presidential Blue House expressed “strongconcern”.
The North is banned from ballistic missile launches under United NationsSecurity Council resolutions but it was the second such firing in less thana week, despite a meeting between leader Kim Jong Un and US PresidentDonald Trump last month.
Pyongyang and Washington are engaged in a long-running diplomatic processover the North’s nuclear and missile programmes that have seen threehigh-profile encounters between their leaders in the space of a year.
They agreed to resume talks during their impromptu June encounter in theDemilitarised Zone that divides the peninsula, but that working-leveldialogue has yet to begin.
Pyongyang has warned the negotiations could be derailed by Washington andSeoul’s refusal to scrap the annual manoeuvres between their forces.
The North has defied years of isolation and sanctions to develop itsarsenal and has not given up any of its weapons while proving itself adeptat dragging out discussions.
On his way to an Asian regional forum where the North will be high on theagenda — even though its foreign minister will apparently not attend — USSecretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters that the talks had beenexpected “within weeks” but were taking “a little bit longer” to start.
There was no immediate comment from Pyongyang on the latest launch, butHarry Kazianis of the Center for the National Interest in Washington saidit was a warning to the two security allies to stop the exercises or theNorth will “raise tensions to a slow boil over time”.
Pyongyang will carry out more launches before the drills begin next weekand again afterwards, he predicted.
“The only question is: would the Kim regime dare test an ICBM, or along-range missile, that could hit the US homeland?”
With its short-range launches, Pyongyang was looking to pressure Washingtonto “come to the table with more readiness to meet its demands”, added JeongYoung-tae, director of the Institute of North Korean Studies. -APP/AFP