THE Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) fired two short-term ballistic missiles into eastern waters, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said yesterday.

The JCS said in a statement that the South Korean military detected two short-term ballistic missiles, which were launched towards the East Sea from a region in the DPRK’s South Pyongan province at 12:34 p.m. local time and 12:39 p.m. each.

The missiles traveled about 800 km at an altitude of around 60 km. The intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States were analyzing further details, the JCS noted.

The JCS said the South Korean military tightened guard and surveillance, while closely cooperating with the United States to maintain a full readiness posture.

The missile launch came just days after the DPRK said Monday that it successfully test-fired new type of long-range cruise missiles Saturday and Sunday.

Meanwhile, South Korea successfully test-fired a homegrown submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), the presidential Blue House said yesterday.

The test launch was conducted in the afternoon at a test site of the state-run Agency for Defense Development (ADD) in South Chungcheong province, inspected by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and major military figures.

The indigenously-developed SLBM was launched underwater from a domestically-developed 3,000-ton Dosan Ahn Chang-ho submarine that was put into commission Aug. 13.

The missile traveled a planned distance and hit the target precisely, the Blue House said. The submarine is known to have six vertical launch tubes.

The ADD conducted several ground- and water tank-based tests of the SLBM, the defense ministry said in a separate statement.

The SLBM was reportedly codenamed “Hyunmoo 4-4” as it was developed based on the technology of the country’s Hyunmoo-2B ballistic missile with a range of about 500 km.

(Xinhua)