North Korea steps up missile launches

North Korea has launched short-range rockets into the sea off its east coast for a second straight day, according to South Korean officials, in what is believed to be Pyongyang’s way of protesting US-South Korean military drills.

At least 16 rockets flew about 60-km early on Sunday morning, Colonel Eom Hyo-sik, an official with South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.

The rockets flew about the same range as the 30 rockets the North fired on Saturday, according to the Associated Press news agency.

South Korea believes the North fired FROG rockets, which are unguided, old Soviet-developed missiles that Pyongyang has had since the 1960s.

Pyongyang claims its rocket launches are part of routine drills and self-defensive in nature, but there have been an unusual number this year.

Six days ago, North Korea also fired 25 short-range rockets into the sea off its east coast.

South Korea believes the short-range rocket launches conducted by the North this month are an “armed protest” against the South Korean-US military drills that are currently taking place.

The North has denounced the joint military exercises as a preparation for war, while Seoul and Washington have said the annual drills are defensive in nature.

Early last year, North Korea conducted its third nuclear weapons test, having successfully launched a long-range rocket in 2012 that analyst said was aimed at proving technology for an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Both of those are banned under United Nations sanctions.

The Korean Peninsula remains officially at war because the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.