By Joyce Lee
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea has fired several cruise missiles at sea on the western Korean peninsula, South Korea’s military said on Saturday.
It would be North Korea’s last missile launch since it fired two ballistic missiles on Wednesday, as Pyongyang and Washington step up their shows of military force amid a standoff over the isolated country’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.
A number of cruise missiles launched since around 04:00 local time Saturday (19:00 Friday GMT) have been detected, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
North Korea fired missiles on Wednesday hours after a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) surfaced for a rare visit to South Korea.
North Korea also warned on Thursday that the deployment of US aircraft carriers, bombers or missile submarines to South Korea could meet the criteria for the use of nuclear weapons.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Diane Craft and Grant McCool)