• AFP
• March 19, 2016 12:00AM
• Save
• Print

North Korea released new footage that shows American student Otto Warmbier breaking down in court, where he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. Photo: KRT

North Korea test fired two medium-range ballistic missiles yesterday, just days after leader Kim Jong-un promised a series of nuclear warhead tests and missile launches amid surging military tensions.

Friction on the divided Korean peninsula has deepened since the North carried out its fourth nuclear test on January 6, followed a month later by a long-range rocket launch that was widely seen as a disguised ballistic missile test.

US defence officials said they had tracked two launches — both believed to be medium-range ­Rodong missiles fired from mobile launch vehicles. The Rodong is a Scud variant with a maximum range of about 1300km.

South Korean military officials said the first missile was launched from Sukchon in the country’s southwest at 5.55am (7.55am AEDT) and flew 800km before splashing down in the Sea of Japan. The second, fired about 20 minutes later, disappeared off radar early into its flight.

They came a day after US President Barack Obama signed an order implementing tough sanctions adopted earlier this month against North Korea by the UN Security Council, as well as fresh unilateral US measures.

For the past two weeks, Pyongyang has maintained a daily barrage of nuclear strike threats against Seoul and Washington, ostensibly over ongoing, large-scale South Korea-US military drills.

To register its anger at the joint exercises, the North fired two short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan on March 10.

A few days later, Kim Jong-un announced that a nuclear warhead explosion test and firings of “several kinds” of ballistic missiles would be carried out “in a short time”.

South Korea’s defence ministry said yesterday’s launches were clearly the result of Kim’s order.

“North Korea appears to be speeding up test launches to ­advance its nuclear capabilities,” said spokesman Moon Sang-gyun.

Calling the move a direct ­challenge to the Security Council and the international community, Mr Moon said the South’s military stood ready to respond to any North Korean threat to national security.

Existing UN sanctions ban North Korea from the use of any ballistic missile test, although short-range launches tend to go unpunished.

A Rodong test is more provocative, given its greater range, which makes it capable of hitting most of Japan.

The last Rodong test was in March 2014, when two of the missiles were fired into the East Sea.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned the launch and said his government would co-­ordinate its response with the US, South Korea and other nations concerned.

“We are taking full and necessary measures for alert and surveillance activity so that we can deal with any and all situations,” he said, after earlier ordering an assessment on the safety of shipping in the splashdown zone.

The US State Department called on Pyongyang to refrain from any actions that could “further raise tensions.”

The test came as North Korea released CCTV images showing American student Otto Warmbier removing a political banner from a wall in a hotel — a “crime” that saw him sentenced to 15 years hard labour. The CCTV clip, taken in a staff-only area of the Yanggakdo International Hotel in Pyongyang, was submitted as evidence during the 21-year-old University of ­Virginia student’s trial on Wednesday. The US has accused the North of using Mr Warmbier as a political pawn and condemned the sentence as way out of proportion to what amounted to little more than a misdemeanour.

The CCTV images did not show exactly what Mr Warmbier did after taking it down, and it was unclear if he attempted to take the poster out of the country. He was arrested at the airport as he was leaving the country with a tour group on January 2.

In the past, North Korea has used the detention of US citizens to obtain high-profile visits from the likes of former US presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton in order to secure their release.

AFP

US soldiers take part in a live fire drill during an exercise near South Korea's southeastern port city.