North Korea fired two short-range ballistic rockets off its east shore less than a week after a comparable test launch, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) of the South Korean Army said.
Wednesday’s recent launches were from the Hodo Peninsula on the east coast of North Korea, the same region from which last weeks were held, the JCS said in a declaration. It said that in the case of extra launches it monitored the scenario and maintained a readiness posture.
“Repeated rocket launches from the North are not useful in an attempt to relieve tensions on the Korean peninsula and we urge[ North Korea] to prevent such behavior,” said the JCS declaration.
Two fresh short-range ballistic missiles were fired by North Korea on 25 July, their first missile tests since Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump met at the end of June and agreed to revive stalled denuclearization negotiations.
Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said after the launch there was no effect on the safety of his country and Japan was working with its allies to tackle the region’s condition.
Abe told reporters on Wednesday, “We will keep working closely with the United States and others.”
The White House, the Pentagon, and the U.S. State Department did not react to demands for comments instantly.
Both Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo played down the launches of last week and Pompeo continued to convey hope with North Korea for a diplomatic manner forward.
Pyongyang has accused Washington from violating the commitment since the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) meeting between the two Koreas on 30 June by planning joint military exercises in August with South Korea and warned against a dialog that can defeat it.
North Korea has also warned of a possible end to its nuclear and long-range missile tests that have been in place since 2017, which Trump has repeatedly upheld as proof of the success of his commitment to Kim.
In February, the Vietnam summit between Trump and Kim collapsed following the failure of the two parties to reconcile the differences in requests from Washington for the full Pyongyang demobilization with North Korean sanction relief claims.
A North Korean official last week informed a counterpart of the White House National Security Council that work-level talks would begin very quickly, a senior official in the U.S. administration said previously on Tuesday.
Trump repeated that he had a nice connection with Kim to journalists at the White House on Tuesday, but added: “We’ll see what’s going to happen. I can’t tell you what will happen. “Pompeo said on Monday that he hoped that work-level discussions could be held” very quickly “to revive denuclearization talks, but stressed that a follow-up leaders ‘ summit was not scheduled.
Pompeo and North Korea’s foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho, were supposed to meet this week on the sidelines of a safety forum in South East Asia in Bangkok, but Ri canceled his journey to the meeting, a diplomatic source said.
The senior U.S. official also said on Tuesday that Ri would not appear to be in Bangkok.