North Korea’s latest short-range missile tests violate United Nations resolutions : South Korea

North Korea’s latest short-range missile tests violate United Nations resolutions, South Korea’s foreign ministry said Tuesday, demanding an end to the launches. The communist state Monday fired five KN-02 missiles from its east coast, the first such launches for three months, Yonhap news agency reported.

The projectiles fired from mobile launchers have a range of 120 kilometres (75 miles) and are a modified version of the Soviet-designed SS-21 missile, Seoul’s defence ministry says. “North Korea’s latest missile tests are in
violation of the UN Security Council resolutions 1695, 1718 and 1874 which ban every activity related to testing of missiles,” foreign ministry spokesman Moon Tae-Young told AFP.

“The government again urges North Korea to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions.” Defence ministry officials said separately the KN-02 missiles are trial missiles, not guided ones. A trial missile is guided in the first part of its flight but falls freely as it approaches the target. Yonhap said there are signs the North is preparing later Tuesday to launch more short-range missiles, this time off its west coast. The North has conducted numerous short range missile tests in recent years, as well as the mid-range and long-range tests that were censured by the UN. Seoul has not previously described the short-range tests as breaching UN resolutions.