so just a few short weeks after all handshakes hugs and smiles at the DMZ
between the leaders of North Korea and the US the North has shaken things up a
touch by shooting some missiles into the East Sea let's get straight to our
defense ministry correspondent kim jian who's at the ministry for us jian tell
us more sure mark South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed earlier this
morning by North Korea had fired two short-range missiles at his eastern city
at once on at 5:34 and 557 a.m. Korea time this Thursday morning the Joint
Chiefs of Staff said that the first short-range missile flew some 430
kilometers towards the east towards the direction of the EC after being launched
from a transporter erector launcher both of the missiles flew at an altitude of
some 50 kilometers and both flew in an easterly direction from the hodo
Peninsula it says it's currently working with the u.s. to verify the second
missile including its flight distance
regarding North Korea's firing of projectiles presumes to be short-range
missiles this morning after the last one fired in May South Korea and US military
are currently sharing information and are analyzing data in detail the South
Korean government has been monitoring the situation and urges North Korea to
halt such actions which are not helpful in lowering military tensions on the
Korean Peninsula the military says it's been closely watching the once an area
where North Korean leader Kim jong-un has recently made public appearances and
has speculated Kim could have been at the site when the missiles were launched
this morning wonton is also where North Korea had launched an intermediate-range
musa dagh missile in June 2016 in an apparent show of force that the
regime has made significant progress in its missile development there's a lot of
questions that aren't being answered by at this hour by Seoul's Defense Ministry
including the question of why North Korea has launched missiles again what
is trying to achieve and the timing why now
mark okay so what you're saying is we have more questions and answers at this
time but so how do we expect this situation over
the next few days to unfold after what happened this morning
well another big question is about North Korea's murders whether it wants to send
a message to the United States and South Korea or if it's showing a force
frustration over what it sees as slow progress in denuclearization talks if
you remember the last time North Korea fired missiles was in early May when a
lot of experts believed that it was an apparent show of frustration over stall
talks with the US since the Hanoi summit and despite repeated questions from the
media on whether they could be officially verified as ballistic this
was not confirmed back in May by the South Korean military and is highly
unlikely that the South Korean military would we'll announce this time that
launches this morning were in fact ballistic another question that's like
likely to be raised is whether they're likely to be Russian Iskander class
missile which can carry nuclear warheads and can invade existing anti-missile
systems like Patriot or THAAD we'll need more expert analysis on this but the big
question is why now since US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim
jong-un seem to patch up their differences at their impromptu meeting
at the inter-korean border on June 30th and as working-level talks were to be
planned between Pyongyang and Washington the North had warned that the resumption
of talks would be affected by weather Seoul and Washington could would go
ahead with joint military exercises planned for next month this also comes
after US National Security Advisor John Bolton visited Seoul earlier this week
to discuss with his South Korean counterpart and foreign affairs and
defense ministers a range of issues centered on diplomatic efforts to
achieve the nuclearization of North Korea and military support measures to
to support those measures we'll have to see if the latest launch has any impact
or if it's going to be serving as a game changer in denuclearization talks back
to you mark