North Korea is believed to have up to 30 Musudan missiles, according to South Korean media, which officials said were first deployed around 2007, although the North had never attempted to test-fire them until April.
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The launches appear to stem from Kim Jong Un’s order in March for more nuclear and ballistic missile tests.
Military officials in the South said both were intermediate-range Musudan missiles.
The U.S. military detected a missile launch from North Korea, Navy Commander Dave Benham, a spokesman from the U.S. military’s Pacific Command, told Reuters in Washington on Tuesday after the first launch without providing details.
The western site “has a clear range as far south as the Philippines and has been used for their Unha space launches”, he said, referring to a series of long-range rocket launches that the North has carried out, including one conducted in February.
UN Security Council resolutions prohibit North Korea from using ballistic missile technology.
“These provocations only serve to increase the global community’s resolve to counter the North Korean’s prohibited activities, including through implementing existing UN Security Council sanctions”, Kirby said.
The Musudan has a strike range of 3,000 to 5,500 kilometers (1,864 to 3,417 miles).
While the missiles did not reach their full range, at least the second test might count as a partial success, John Schilling, an aerospace engineer who regularly contributes to 38 North, a North Korean monitoring project, told CNN.
In late April, a twin missile test of Musudan missiles also failed. It would be another violation of United Nations resolutions.
-South Korean military drills, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.
The United States advised North Korea to stop its ballistic missile tests and said it only strengthened the worldwide community’s resolve to press forward with U.N. sanctions.
The Musudan missile isn’t really new, according to Schilling.
The last several months have been particularly contentious on the Korean peninsula, after North Korea claimed to have tested its first hydrogen bomb, an assertion that US officials dispute, and fired a satellite into orbit.
“We of course would have concerns if the North Koreans were to conduct another missile test”.
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Wednesday’s tests came with military tensions still running high following Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch a month later that saw the UN Security Council impose its toughest sanctions to date on the North.
