North Korea May Fire Short-Range Rockets Next Week, Report Says

bloomberg.com

North Korea is preparing to fire multiple short-range rockets around the opening of the Chinese Communist Party’s twice-a-decade congress on Oct. 18, a South Korean daily newspaper reported. 

The South Korean and U.S. militaries have recently spotted about 30 Scud rockets being moved from Hwangju, south of the capital Pyongyang, to a missile maintenance facility in the western coastal city of Nampo, the Seoul-based Asia Business Daily said, citing an unidentified person. 

While launching dozens of short-range rockets simultaneously is unusual, it’s not unprecedented. In March 2014, Kim Jong Un’s regime fired 71 of them in a single week. Such a move would also show how North Korea is capable of various types of provocation, having spent the past few months testing missiles that could potentially deliver a nuclear warhead to the U.S. mainland.