North Korea Fires Two Ballistic Missiles, Warns US on Drills
- US-South Korea joint military drills draw Pyongyang’s ire
- Kim Jong Un tried, failed to put a satellite in orbit in May
People watch a broadcast of a North Korean rocket launch, at the Seoul Railway Station in May.
Photographer: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
North Korea test-fired two short-range ballistic missiles Thursday in its first such launch in about two months, which came after it failed in late May to put a spy satellite into orbit.
The missiles were fired as the US and South Korea ended live-fire drills this week near the border with North Korea, which were overseen by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and drew the ire of Kim Jong Un’s regime. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency quoted a Defense Ministry spokesman as denouncing the military exercises and issuing a threat, in a dispatch that coincided with the launch.