North Korea fires new ballistic missile

North Korea test-fired two medium-range ballistic missiles on Friday, just days after leader Kim Jong-un promised a series of nuc-lear warhead tests and missile launches amid surging military tensions.

Friction on the divided Korean peninsula has deepened since the North carried out its fourth nuclear test on January 6, followed a month later by a long-range rocket launch that was widely seen as a disguised ballistic missile test.

US defence officials said they had tracked two launches — both believed to be medium-range Rodong missiles fired from road-mobile launch vehicles. The Rodong is a scaled-up Scud variant with a maximum range of around 1,300 km.

South Korean military officials said the first missile was launched from Sukchon in the country’s southwest at 5:55 am (2055 GMT Thursday) and flew 800 km before splashing down in the East Sea (Sea of Japan). The second, fired about 20 minutes later, disappeared off radar early into its flight.

They came a day after US President Barack Obama signed an order implementing tough sanctions adopted earlier this month against North Korea by the UN Security Council, as well as fresh unilateral US measures.

For the past two weeks, Pyongyang has maintained a daily barrage of nuclear strike threats against both Seoul and Washington, ostensibly over ongoing, large-scale South Korea-US military drills that the North sees as provocative rehearsals for invasion.

South Korea’s defence ministry said on Friday’s launches were clearly the result of Mr Kim’s order. “North Korea appears to be speeding up test lau-nches to advance its nuc-lear capabilities,” said ministry spokesman Mo-on Sang-Gyun.

Japanese Prime Minis-ter Shinzo Abe condem-ned the launch and said his government would coordinate its response with the US, South Korea and other nations concerned.

The US state department urged Pyongyang to refrain from any actions that could “further raise tensions.”