“The North fired an unidentified projectile towards the West Sea,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, referring to the Yellow Sea located between the Korean Peninsula and China, without providing details.
North Korea carried out several projectile launches on Tuesday, including a ballistic missile, in the Yellow Sea, off the west coast of the Korean peninsula, the South Korean army announced. The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Tuesday that they had detected, around 1:00 p.m. (04:00 GMT), gunfire from “several projectiles” in the Yellow Sea, including a short-range ballistic missile, launched from the North Korean city of Chongju.
This shot comes as information from the South Korean news agency Yonhap recently reported a possible visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to South Korea this week, citing unspecified government sources. Neither country has yet confirmed this visit. At the beginning of April, Pyongyang carried out several short-range ballistic missile launches aimed, according to state media, at “check the characteristics and power of a cluster bomb warheadâ€.
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Pyongyang systematically rejects Seoul’s outstretched hands
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un also called in mid-May to strengthen front-line military units in the face of “the sworn enemyé” South Korean, according to the official KCNA agency. The two neighboring countries are technically still at war since their 1950-1953 conflict concluded with an armistice and not a peace treaty. Despite the wishes of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung elected last year for appeasement, Pyongyang systematically rejects Seoul’s outstretched hands.
A rare brightening, however, emerged last week: the footballers of Naegohyang FC, the first North Korean sports team to travel to South Korea in eight years, won the Asian Football Champions League on Saturday. After their title, the North Koreans unfurled their national flag, a gesture that has long been taboo in South Korea under the National Security Law.
