South Korea is planning to hold a top military commanders’ meeting to access the country’s readiness to deal with North Korea’s provocations, South Korean media report.
TOKYO (Sputnik) – South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo and over 100 military commanders will attend the meeting, which follows North Korea’s test firing of two intermediate-range ballistic missiles, the South Korean Yonhap news agency said on Thursday.
The US, Japanese and South Korean military detected two launches of presumably medium-range ballistic missiles from North Korea’s eastern coast on Wednesday.
Early on Thursday, North Korea reported that the test-firing, attended by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was successful.
According to the South Korean military, one of the missiles flew over 400 kilometers (almost 250 miles).
In early January, North Korea successfully carried out a hydrogen bomb test, putting a satellite into orbit a month later, in violation UN Security Council resolutions.
In March, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution that imposes additional sanctions on North Korea, aiming to affect multiple sectors of the country’s economy. That same month North Korea conducted multiple short and medium-range rocket launches.
Last month, Pyongyang urged Seoul to accept its offer to hold military talks and called for joint steps to carry out measures for national unity, citing the need to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula. South Korea rejected the proposal, demanding "a real turn" toward denuclearization.
This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.