North Korea pops off another projectile into the Pacific

It's not clear if North Korea fired a short-range missile or an artillery round. The isolated regime also launched three missiles on Saturday, causing no damage.

By Hyung-Jin Kim,?Associated Press / May 19, 2013

A mock Scud-B missile of North Korea, (r.), and other South Korean missiles are displayed at Korea War Memorial Museum in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday. North Korea fired a projectile into waters off its eastern coast Sunday, a day after launching three short-range missiles in the same area, officials said.

Ahn Young-joon/AP

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North?Korea?fired a projectile into waters off its eastern coast Sunday, a day after launching three short-range missiles in the same area, officials said.

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North?Korea?routinely test-launches short-range missiles. But the latest launches came during a period of tentative diplomacy aimed at easing recent tension, including near-daily threats by?North?Korea?to attack South?Korea?and the US earlier this year.?North?Korea?protested annual joint military drills by Seoul and Washington and UN sanctions imposed over its February nuclear test.

The fourth launch occurred Sunday afternoon, according to officials at Seoul's Defense Ministry and Joint Chiefs of Staff. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing department rules, refused to say whether it was a missile or artillery round.

On Saturday,?North?Korea?fired two short-range missiles in the morning and another in the afternoon. The US responded by saying threats or provocations would only further deepen?North?Korea's?international isolation, while South?Korea?called the launches a provocation and urged the?North?to take responsible actions.

The?North?has a variety of missiles but Seoul and Washington don't believe the country has mastered the technology needed to manufacture nuclear warheads that are small and light enough to be placed on a missile capable of reaching the US.

US officials said the?North?has recently withdrawn two mid-range "Musudan" missiles believed to be capable of reaching Guam after moving them to its east coast during the recent tensions.

The Korean Peninsula officially remains in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. South?Korea's?Defense Ministry said Sunday it has deployed dozens of Israeli-made precision guided missiles on front-line islands near the disputed western sea boundary as part of an arms buildup begun after a?North?Korean artillery strike on one of the islands in 2010 killed four South Koreans.

* Associated Press writer Sam Kim contributed to this report.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/bj9YWrUG7Hs/North-Korea-pops-off-another-projectile-into-the-Pacific

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