North Korea appeared to have fired a short-range multiple rocket launcher on Sunday (March 20), South Korea’s military said, amid heightened military tensions on the peninsula after a spate of larger missile launches by the nuclear-armed North.
“This morning there was firing in North Korea which is assumed to be multiple rocket launcher shots, and our military was monitoring the related situation and maintaining a readiness posture,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, without elaborating.
North Korea’s military fired four shots at around 7:20 am for about an hour toward its west coast from an unidentified location in South Pyongan Province, Yonhap news agency reported. South Korea’s National Security Council held an emergency vice-ministerial meeting over the launches.
While they garner much less attention than the massive intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), North Korea has displayed several new types of multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) in recent years, adding to an already large arsenal of artillery and rockets ideal for potentially striking targets in the South.