SK: North Korea Fires Unidentified Missiles, Pressures US With Nuclear Diplomacy Deadline

North Korea fired two unidentified projectiles into the sea on Thursday.

According to South Korea’s Defense Ministry, the missiles were fired three days after the North reportedly conducted artillery drills near its disputed sea boundary with the South.

The South Korean military is monitoring possible additional launches by North Korea; however, the details on the type of projectiles and where they landed were still not released.

Past reports of South Korea about the North’s missile launches had all been test launches, artillery pieces and other weapons.

The last test launch was done late last month when North Korea test-fired a new “super large” multiple rocket launcher, a day after South Korea reported of the North’s two projectiles being fired into the water.

If confirmed to be a missile test, it would be Pyongyang’s 13th missile test since May.

A pattern on the dates of the launches was noticed and according to reports, this might be significant symbolism.

The projectile launches on Thursday happened on Thanksgiving morning in the U.S. and North Korea had conducted missile tests on important American holidays such as on July 4, 2017—U.S. Independence Day—where its first successful test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) which the North Korean media called as a “package of gifts” for “American bastards”, CNN reported.

ABC News reported that the South presumed that this action could be an attempt to pressure the U.S. government to make concessions in their stalemated negotiations on nuclear diplomacy.

The negotiations between North Korea and Washington have been at an impasse since early October when the two sides met in Stockholm and the North had recently announced their disinterest in further holding the talks with the US.

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un said in an April policy speech that he would give the Trump Administration a year-end deadline to change the negotiating strategy however, Trump rejected Kim’s demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for partial demobilization.
Experts said that should the U.S. government fail to meet the deadline, North Korea might resume testing long-range missiles and nuclear devices.