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North Korea test-fires missiles into Sea of Japan

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – North Korea test-fired two missiles off its east coast into the Sea of Japan on Tuesday morning, DW reports. While analysts are ascertaining the exact type of projectiles fired, it is believed they were cruise missiles, which are not banned under UN sanctions against North Korea.

Tuesday’s launches were the continuation of increased weapons testing by Pyongyang in recent weeks, DW said. Understood to have been carried out from an inland area in North Korea, the launches constituted the fifth round of missile testing this year alone: the last round of testing took place on January 17.

Experts believe North Korea’s increased missile testing is intended as a provocation to the US over failed diplomacy. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency stated Thursday: “The hostile policy and military threat by the U.S. has reached a danger line that cannot be overlooked anymore despite our sincere efforts for maintaining the general tide for relaxation of tension in the Korean peninsula since the DPRK-U.S. summit in Singapore.”

Seoul-based experts believe Pyongyang’s increased weapons testing is also a form of posturing to display its strength to South Korea and the international community at large.

“North Korea aims to enhance its presence in the international community ahead of their most revered anniversaries of the late leader and founder of the country,” Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul told ABC News on Tuesday.