North Korea conducts apparent missile test

North Korea fired several short-range guided missiles today in an apparent test launch, South Korean officials and media reports said.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed the launches, but said it was still investigating how many missiles were fired and where exactly the tests occurred. The launches were apparently part of annual exercises conducted by the North, the Joint Chiefs said in a statement.

“The short-range missile launches are believed to be part of a routine exercise that North Korea has conducted annually on the east and the west coasts in the past,” the JCS said.

Japan’s public broadcaster and other media, citing Japanese and US sources, reported that the missiles were surface-to-ship. Japan’s Defence Ministry and Foreign Ministry could not immediately confirm the reports, but were investigating.

Some reports suggested that that the North’s test was in response to South Korea’s launch of its first destroyer equipped with high-tech Aegis radar technology today.

Public broadcaster NHK said the short-range missiles were fired on the east and west coast of the Korean Peninsula. Officials are currently investigating further details, including the number of missiles fired.

NHK said the missiles were shorter-range, and were not North Korea’s existing Rodong or Taepodong I ballistic missiles. Japan’s NTV network reported that the missiles were surface-to-ship.