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North Korea fires missile in show of force after Putin visit

Jon Herskovitz, Bloomberg News on

Published in News & Features

North Korea shot off a suspected ballistic missile Monday, Yonhap News agency reported, days after firing a rocket to test a new multiple warhead system for delivering a nuclear strike.

At least one missile was launched eastward, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, Yonhap reported. It’s North Korea’s second launch in less than a week. Further details weren’t immediately available.

The latest launches are a show of force for leader Kim Jong Un after he hosted Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang in mid-June. The two countries reached a deal to come to the other’s aid if attacked during the Russian president’s first visit to North Korea in 24 years, raising alarm among the U.S. and its key allies in Asia — Japan and South Korea.

 

North Korea claimed it successfully conducted a test of a multiple warhead missile system on June 26 but South Korea called the launch a failure and accused Kim’s regime of using “deception and exaggeration” to cover up a missile that exploded in the early stages of flight.

North Korea has at times made dubious claims about successes in weapons tests. But Kim has set the goal of being able to deploy multiple warheads to hit several targets, making them harder to intercept and more likely at least one can reach its target.


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