North Korea fires suspected short-range missiles, South Korea says, amid coronavirus

By Joyce Lee

 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un guides artillery fire competition in this image released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 20, 2020. KCNA via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. REUTERS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THIS IMAGE. NO THIRD PARTY SALES. SOUTH KOREA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN SOUTH KOREA.

 

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea fired two projectiles that appeared to be short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off the east coast of the Korean peninsula, South Korea's military said on Saturday, after what analysts said was a show of confidence during the coronavirus epidemic by announcing an April legislature session.

 

The launch follows two earlier this month, when North Korea launched short-range missiles and multiple projectiles, according to South Korea's military, drawing U.S. and Chinese appeals for Pyongyang to return to talks on ending its nuclear and missile programmes.

 

The suspected missiles were fired from North Pyongan province, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The province is above Pyongyang on the northwest corner of the Korean peninsula, bordering China.

 

Japan's coast guard said on Saturday that North Korea appeared to have fired a missile, which landed outside Japan's exclusive economic zone waters.

 

Earlier on Saturday, North Korea announced it will hold in April a session of the Supreme People's Assembly, its rubber-stamp legislature, in Pyongyang, which analysts had said would involve gathering almost 700 of the country's leaders in one spot as the coronavirus spreads worldwide.

 

"If it goes ahead, it would be the ultimate show of (North Korea's) confidence in managing the coronavirus situation," Rachel Minyoung Lee, of the North Korea monitoring website NK News, said on Twitter this week.

 

North Korea has not reported any confirmed cases of the new coronavirus that was first detected in China late last year, though a top U.S. military official said last week he is "fairly certain" there were infections in North Korea.

 

State media KCNA also said on Saturday North Korean leader Kim Jong Un guided an artillery fire competition between combined units of the North Korean army on Friday, displaying photos of him watching with high-ranking military officers, all unmasked. It was unclear whether Saturday's launch was part of the drill.

 

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Ju-min Park in Tokyo and Josh Smith in Seoul; Editing by Tom Brown, Leslie Adler and Daniel Wallis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-03-21

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Maybe they just disposing of virus victims by attaching them to the missiles.

It's actually good to see, how little people around the world cares what the little dull man of North Korea is doing and how he tries to get world's attention. 

 

I can only guess that the coronavirus situation in North Korea is dire and that's the reason they are trying to get attention to external matters.

 

Sorry Kim, you are toast.

He’s just crying out for attention perhaps a beautiful letter would work better

He would be wise not to provoke the South. He may not receive any food or medical equipment.

Reports are that if you have the virus, have less than $150 you are exterminated

North Korea must think 'This is a good time to attack South Korea because it is now weakened by the Coronavirus'.

Ordinarily he shoots these missiles off to make a point or to gain notoriety. The world is obsessed with Covid-19 so what is his point? Nobody cares until the corona-virus crisis is over.