Pyongyang: North Korea fired three ballistic missiles off its east coast, just hours after United States President Joe Biden wrapped up his Asian tour, Al Jazeera reported on Wednesday.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the first missile was launched at 6am local time (21:00 GMT) on Wednesday, followed by the second launch 37 minutes later and the third five minutes after that.
South Korean military said it was “maintaining a full readiness posture” and closely cooperating with the US.
Soon after North Korea’s missile launch, South Korea’s new-elected President Yoon Suk-Yeol immediately convened a meeting of the National Security Council.
This year North Korea has carried out a record number of missile launches, including a test of its biggest intercontinental ballistic missiles since 2017, leading to the US issuing warnings that Pyongyang was poised for more weapons tests as President Biden headed to South Korea and Japan, in his first visit to the region as president.
The US military command in the region said it was aware of “multiple” ballistic missile launches from North Korea and was assessing the situation and that President Biden had been briefed about the North Korean missile launches.
