It added that Kim is now guiding North Korean drills aimed at evaluating the “capabilities of the units” and the precision of the “improved ballistic rockets deployed for action”. The reclusive state’s leader expressed “great satisfaction over the successful successive firing drill of ballistic rocket”, KCNA reported.
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The launches also came hours after Chinese President Xi Jinping told his South Korean counterpart at the G20 that Beijing opposes the deployment of the United States’ THAAD missile defense system to South Korea.
South Korea’s defence ministry said they may have been Rodong missiles with a range of 1,000km (620 miles), and that they were fired without navigational warning to Japan.
Also noting that Monday’s “reckless” missile launches threaten civil aviation and maritime commerce in the region, he said Washington will raise those concerns at the East Asia Summit starting in Laos on Tuesday to “bolster global resolve” to hold Pyongyang accountable for its provocative actions.
Current UN resolutions prohibit North Korea from any test of ballistic missile technology.
Beijing has in the past raised concerns that the powerful radar used by the US missile defense system would be used to penetrate Chinese territory.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called on Pyongyang’s military to bolster its nuclear capabilities after ordering the launch of three ballistic missiles.
The incident comes just days before North Korea celebrates her 68 anniversary as a nation, and after South Korea and U.S. troops ended their annual joint military drills.
The defense ministry estimates the missiles fell between 125 and 155 miles from Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido.
U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at the Lao National Cultural Hall in Vientiane, Laos, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2016.
Recent efforts have flown greater distances, including a submarine-launched ballistic missile on August 24 that flew about 310 miles and also landed near Japan.
“I think North Korea tried to send a message that ‘you may not expect peace on the Korean peninsula while ignoring us, and we will initiate any peace on the Korean peninsula, ‘” said North Korean defector and analyst Ahn Chan-il, with the World Institute for North Korean studies.
While Seoul and Washington say the system is intended exclusively to defend against North Korea’s missile threat, Beijing says it would enable the USA military to peer deeply into northeastern China. The two nations made a decision to deploy an anti-missile system, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (Thaad) system, in the Korean peninsula. In June, after a string of failures, North Korea sent an intermediate Musudan missile more than 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) high in a test launch that outside analysts said showed progress in efforts to acquire the ability to strike US forces in the region.
It comes after Pyongyang test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile two weeks ago.
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After the submarine-based launch, the Security Council called on United Nations member states to “redouble their efforts” to implement all United Nations sanctions imposed on the North.
