Seoul [South Korea], July 1 : North Korea has fired two ballistic missiles and the second may have failed and blown up, possibly raining debris inland, Al Jazeera said, quoting South Korea's military.
Monday's launches came a day after Pyongyang promised "offensive and overwhelming" responses to new military drills staged by the United States, South Korea and Japan.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the missiles were launched 10 minutes apart in a northeasterly direction from the town of Jangyon in southeastern North Korea.
The military said the first missile flew 600 km and the second 120 km, but did not say where they landed. North Korea typically test-fires missiles towards its eastern waters, but the second missile's flight distance was too short to reach that far, Al Jazeera said, quoting South Korea's military.
Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Lee Sung-joon later told a briefing there appeared to have been problems with the second missile and that if it exploded, its debris would probably have scattered on the ground.
Al Jazeera said that the South Korean media, citing unidentified South Korean military sources, said it was highly likely the second missile crashed in an inland area of North Korea, while the first one landed in the waters off North Korea's eastern city of Chongjin.
Monday's launches were the first from North Korea in five days and came as the US, South Korea and Japan ended their "Freedom Edge" drills, new multi-domain trilateral military exercises. Pyongyang typically frames such drills as rehearsals for an invasion or proof of the countries' hostility, Al Jazeera said.
"In both North Korean politics and military policy, the best defence is often a good offence," Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at the Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said in emailed comments to Al Jazeera. "Pyongyang is also determined not to appear weak while South Korea conducts defence exercises with Japan and the United States."
Last Wednesday, North Korea launched 'multiwarhead missile' in the first known test of a developmental, advanced weapon meant to defeat US and South Korean missile defences, although South Korea disputed the claim.
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