North Korea Fires Two Missiles Into Sea After Kim Jong-un Tells Army To Get Ready For War With U.S.
The news has broken that North Korea has fired two missiles into sea, according to South Korea. This report comes via CNN, who says that they were short-range missiles that landed in the Sea of Japan at approximately 4:30 p.m. ET on Sunday afternoon, which represents the early morning hours of around 6:30 a.m. on Monday in North Korea on the western coast of the country, the vantage point from whence they were fired nearby Nampo City. It’s a location close to the popular city of Pyongyang, one that became more well known with American moviegoers when the controversial film called The Interview pictured two would-be TV journalists traveling to the location, as reported by the Inquisitr.
The two missies were able to travel more than 300 miles prior to landing in the sea, reports an anonymous South Korean official about the actions that are deemed as an aggressive military test, especially in light of earlier reports of Kim Jong-un allegedly telling his North Korean army to ‘prepare for war’ with the U.S., as reported by Fox News?.
The actions by North Korea were an angry response to annual military drills by the U.S., so the firing of the short-range missiles off the North Korean coast, according to Reuters, was a heated response by the volatile nation. The fact that North Korea fired two missiles into the sea represented the country’s protest of the U.S.-South Korean military exercises that would’ve begun shortly, ones that North Korea decries as preparation for war against them.
North Korea has been banned by the United Nations from firing long-range missiles but not short-range missiles like the ones they’ve just fired. According to the BBC, however, the ban doesn’t mean that North Korea has no long-range missiles in their possession. The BBC News reports that North Korea could have more than 1,000 missiles — either short, intermediary or long-range — at their disposal, with the long-range missiles carrying distance ranges potentially into the thousands of miles, which could contain the possibility of striking the U.S.
After North Korea launched the two missiles, backlash against their actions occurred, with Japan responding via the office of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a Twitter post. The expansion of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal has been troubling, as reported by the New York Times. Along with plenty of reports of mistreatment and starvation of the North Korean people, their Ebola quarantine has also recently caused concern, reports the Washington Post.
[Image via Bloomberg]
