North Korea fired two unidentified projectiles Friday into waters off its east coast between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, South Korea’s defense ministry said in a statement.
The launch from North Korea’s southeastern region of Tongchon in Kangwon Province comes a day after Liberation Day, a holiday marked by both Koreas to celebrate its independence from Japanese colonial rule 1910-1945. South Korea’s military is monitoring for possible further launches, the statement said.
North Korea sharply criticized South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s speech marking the holiday, calling saying he made “reckless remarks” that “had nothing to do with Liberation Day,” according to a statement carried by its state media Korea Central News Agency. The government-linked Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said North Korea no longer has anything to say to South Korean authorities “nor have any idea to sit with them again.”
Over the past several weeks North Korea has tested an increasingly sophisticated, hard-to-track missile system that could wipe out South Korean and Japanese cities — not to mention U.S. forces based in both countries. U.S. President Donald Trump brushed off the tests, saying relations would improve when U.S.-South Korea military exercises end later this month.
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