NK Missile Launch

[Anchor Lead]

We begin today’s show with another provocation from North Korea. The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff say that North Korea fired a ballistic missile Wednesday morning. Here’s more.

[Pkg]

The Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile into the East Sea at around 6:42 a.m. Wednesday from Sinpo, Hamkyongnam-do Province. The JCS said that the missile flew a distance of approximately 60 kilometers. The U.S. Pacific Command believes that the projectile was a Pukguksong-2 medium-range ballistic missile. The results of an analysis conducted earlier by the North American Aerospace Defense Command showed that the projectile poses no threat to North America. It was concluded that the projectile is unlikely to be an intercontinental ballistic missile given its short firing range. Pyongyang launched the Pukguksong-2 powered by solid fuel on February 12, and fired four Scud-ER missiles at once on March 6. On March 22, it attempted to fire a projectile that was presumed to be a Musudan missile, but failed. North Korea has been threatening to fire ICBMs from any location at any time this year, and showed signs of preparing for long-range ICBM launches by testing a solid-fuel engine. The North Korea nuclear and missile issue will loom large on the agenda of the upcoming U.S.-China summit slated for April 6-7. Pyongyang's latest provocation is also presumed to be an expression of protest against the South Korea-U.S. joint military drills. The South Korean military has upped its defense readiness and is closely monitoring the situation.