South Korea says North Korea has fired a short-range missile off its east coast, in the latest response by the isolated regime to newly imposed international sanctions and ongoing joint U.S.-South Korean military drills.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was fired late Tuesday near the North Korean port city of Wonsan and flew about 200 kilometers before hitting a target on land.
Pyongyang fired five short-range missiles on March 21 into the East Sea from the eastern city of Hamhung. The week before it fired medium range missiles into the sea in defiance of United Nations sanctions imposed over the North's fourth nuclear test in January, followed a month later by a test of a long-range rocket.
North Korea has been threatening for weeks to initiate preemptive nuclear strikes against Washington and Seoul to protest South Korea — U.S. military drills. The North sees the drills as a rehearsal for a military invasion.