North Korea Launches Missiles in Latest Test-fire

nbcnews.com

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea launched two ballistic missiles into the sea on Sunday, South Korea said, the latest in a series of test-firings seen as expressions of anger over the North's failure to win talks on receiving outside aid, and over U.S.-South Korean military drills. The missiles, believed to be of Scud variations, were fired from the North Korean city of Kaesong near the border with the South and had a range of about 311 miles, said a South Korean military official.

North Korea experts said it was highly unusual for Pyongyang to fire missiles from a city just 12 miles from the heavily fortified border separating the two Koreas. The North usually test-fires missiles launched from its eastern port city of Wonsan, about 80 miles from the border. "It is remarkable that missiles were fired from Kaesong, a symbol of North-South cooperation," said professor Yang Moo-jin of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies. North Korea regularly conducts test-firings, but this year has seen an unusually large number of launches.