North Korea fires two missiles after US threat

North Korea has test-fired two ballistic missiles just days after leader Kim Jong-un said he wanted to develop weapons capable of reaching the US mainland. American officials said the medium-range missiles flew about 500 miles before crashing off North Korea’s east coast.

South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said they were the first medium-range missiles launched by the North since April 2014.

A senior US defence official described the test as a violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions.

Lt Col Michelle Baldanza, of the US defence press office, said: “We call on North Korea to refrain from actions that further raise tensions in the region.”

Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe also condemned the launch.

Tensions between the US and North Korea have already been raised by the sentencing of a US student to 15 years hard labour this week.

The US has demanded the release of Otto Warmbier, 21, who was arrested for trying to steal a propaganda sign from a hotel in Pyongyang while on a visit in January.

North Korea said the student had committed crimes against the state.

The launch came a day after President Barack Obama imposed new sanctions freezing North Korean government property in the US and banning US exports to — or investment in — North Korea as well as expanding powers to blacklist anyone dealing with the rogue state.

In recent weeks, Pyongyang has threatened pre-emptive nuclear strikes against Washington and Seoul and test-fired short-range missiles and artillery into the sea in response to tough UN sanctions imposed over its nuclear test and rocket launch.

The North says it needs nuclear weapons to cope with what it calls US military threats.

On Tuesday, North Korea’s state media said Kim had ordered tests of a nuclear warhead and ballistic missiles capable of carrying warheads. Kim issued that order while overseeing a successful simulated test of a re-entry vehicle aimed at returning a nuclear warhead into the atmosphere from space so it could hit its intended target.

This led South Korean analysts to suspect that the North would fire a missile soon to test the re-entry technology. Some analysts had also predicted the North might fire a missile carrying an empty warhead, which contain trigger devices but lack plutonium or uranium, to see if the warhead’s parts can survive the high pressure and temperatures of re-entry into the atmosphere and if they were able to detonate at the right time.