Yonhap English news | Yonhap, Latest News & Live Updates in English | English News (Latest English News) at Lokmattimes.com

Washington, Jan 19 The US takes very seriously the threat posed by North Korea's "improving" missile programs, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby has said.He, however, said the US is still assessing the nature North Korea's recent missile launches, apparently to learn their exact capabilities, Yonhap news agency reported."We will continue to take this threat and this improving program of Pyongyang's very, very seriously," he told a press briefing when asked about North's recent missile launches.North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles on Monday (Seoul time), marking its fourth missile launch since the start of the new year.Citing photos of the launch released by North Korea, Seoul officials have said the missiles fired Monday appeared to be the KN-24, which are said to be a North Korean version of the US' Army Tactical Missile System or ATACMS that fly a complicated trajectory, making them hard to intercept."We've assessed them as ballistic missiles, and we're still running the traps on that. So I don't have more detail on that," Kirby said when asked about the nature of the missiles involved in the latest North Korean launch.North Korea fired what it claims to be a newly developed hypersonic missile on January 5 and January 11 before launching two short-range ballistic missiles on Friday.Kirby noted the US has clearly and repeatedly called the North Korean missile launches a threat to US allies and partners in the region."We're not devaluing anything. Not at all," he said when asked if the US was downplaying the threat posed by the North Korean missile launches since they did not pose immediate threat to the US homeland."We have, as an administration, condemned these missile launches and called them out for what they are, clearly violations of various UN Security Council resolutions and dangerous to the region, certainly dangerous to our allies and partners, and we're taking that very seriously. There's no devaluing of any," he added.Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

YonhapFOLLOW

Yonhap, Latest News

North Korea has fired an unidentified projectile to the Sea of Japan, the Yonhap news agency reported on Thursday, citing the South Korean military. ...

Seoul, Jan 26 South Korea reported another case of highly pathogenic avian influenza at a duck farm on ... ...

Seoul, Jan 21 The government will lower the age of eligibility for Covid-19 treatment pills from 65 to ... ...

Seoul, Jan 19 The South Korean police on Wednesday said that they were looking into the case of ... ...

Seoul, Jan 19 South Korea's daily coronavirus cases jumped to over 5,000 for the first time in 20 ... ...

Riyadh, Jan 19 South Korean President Moon Jae-in held talks with Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince ... ...

Washington, Jan 19 The US takes very seriously the threat posed by North Korea's "improving" missile programs, Pentagon ... ...

North Korea said it had conducted a test launch of tactical guided missiles on January 17, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). ...