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| North Korean KN-09 Multiple-Launch Rocket System (MLRS) |
Nuclear-armed North Korea on Tuesday marked a military anniversary with a conventional firing drill, reports said, as the South announced joint naval exercises with a US aircraft carrier in the flashpoint region.
Speculation had mounted that Pyongyang could carry out a sixth nuclear test or another missile launch to mark 85 years since the founding of its army.
But no such event -- which usually happens in the morning -- had taken place by noon, and Seoul's defence ministry said "no unusual development had been detected".
Instead the South's Yonhap news agency cited an unnamed government source saying Pyongyang marked the anniversary with its "largest ever firing drill", carried out in the eastern port city of Wonsan and presumed to have been overseen by leader Kim Jong-Un.
North Korea has ambitions to build a missile capable of reaching the US mainland and tensions have soared in recent months as it carried out a string of missile tests that sparked tit-for-tat sabre-rattling between it and Washington.
Read the full story at SpaceDaily