North Korea fired at least 10 short-range ballistic missiles toward waters off its east coast on Thursday, Seoul said, days after its attempt to launch a new spy satellite into orbit ended in a fireball.
The South Korean military said the North fired the short-range weapons from Pyongyang’s Sunan area.
In Tokyo, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida confirmed the launch and said no missiles were believed to have landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles (370 km) from the coast.
Kishida told reporters that Japan had strongly protested the launch as a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, adding that Japan was working closely with South Korea and the United States to analyze the situation.
North Korean state media reported on Wednesday that leader Kim Jong Un had pledged to continue building spy satellites – calling it an “essential task” – after the nuclear-armed country’s latest attempt to orbit Earth to achieve ended in failure.
