A few weeks after announcing the end of its moratorium on long-range ballistic missile testing, North Korea fired two unidentified projectiles on Monday (March 2nd), the South Korean military reported. The two spacecraft were launched east over the sea from the Wonsan region on the east coast, the South Korean Joint Staff said. “The army is monitoring possible other launches and is getting ready”, specifies the press release.
North Korea had carried out a series of shots at the end of last year, the last one in November, sometimes speaking of ballistic missile shots or “Multiple launch system for large caliber guided rockets”. The country also tested an engine in December.
Stalled denuclearization negotiations
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un announced the end of the moratorium on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests at the end of December at a meeting of dignitaries from the ruling party in North Korea. He also threatened to demonstrate a “New strategic weapon”.
The peninsula experienced remarkable relaxation in 2018, illustrated by historic meetings between Mr. Kim and US President Donald Trump. But the denuclearization negotiations have stalled since the second summit between the two men, in February 2019 in Hanoi.
Pyongyang has in the past fired missiles capable of reaching all of the continental United States. North Korea has also carried out six nuclear tests, the latest of which was a device sixteen times more powerful than the bomb that devastated Hiroshima in 1945, according to high estimates.
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