The missiles, launched between 5:45 a.m. and 6:40 a.m. local time, were fired from North Hwanghae province in the western part of North Korea and traveled between 500 and 600 kilometers (between 310 and 370 miles), according to a statement from the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff.
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The government has paid 5.6 billion won (US$4.91 million) in initial compensation to South Korean employees who are suffering from the shutdown of the Kaesong industrial park in North Korea, it announced on July 20.
North Korea is prohibited from developing ballistic missile technology by United Nations resolutions and test-firing of three missiles was in gross violation of these resolutions.
“And it once again examined the operational features of the detonating devices of nuclear warheads mounted on the ballistic rockets at the designated altitude over the target area”, it added.
The drill rehearsed “making preemptive strikes at ports and airfields in the operational theater in south Korea, where the US imperialists nuclear war hardware is to be hurled”, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday.
US and South Korean officials said out of the two tests, one had flown just 150 kilometers (93 miles) before plunging into the Sea of Japan, while the other had traveled 400 kilometers (249 miles).
Yang Uk, a senior researcher at the Korea Defence and Security Forum and a policy adviser to the South Korean navy, said there was little firm evidence to suggest the North had succeeded in developing a nuclear warhead for missiles.
Three missiles were launched on Tuesday by North Korea, landing into the sea.
The three reported launches came as North Korea loudly criticized the planned deployment of an advanced USA missile defense system in South Korea.
“Kim Jong Un expressed great satisfaction over the successful drill”, the KCNA statement said, and he praised the soldiers for being “fully ready to carry out any order issued all of a sudden”.
North Korea also said Wednesday that US forces in South Korea would be its first target.
North Korea had earlier threatened a “physical response” to the move.
The North and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Currently South Korea is in the process of receiving a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile technology.
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Reclusive North Korea occasionally publishes insults of USA and South Korean officials.
