North Korea fires multiple suspected short-range missiles, South Korea says

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By Ju-min Park and Satoshi Sugiyama

SEOUL (Reuters) -North Korea fired what appeared to be about 10 short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast, South Korea’s military said on Thursday.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said North Korea had launched a ballistic missile that apparently landed outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

The suspected missiles were fired from the Sunan area near its capital Pyongyang at 6:14 a.m. on Thursday (2114 GMT on Wednesday) and flew about 350 km (217 miles) before plunging into the sea, South Korea’s military said in a statement.

South Korea is sharing North Korean missile-related information with U.S. and Japanese officials, it added in the statement.

The launch came after North Korea failed on Monday at its attempt to put a second spy satellite into orbit when a newly developed rocket engine exploded in flight.

After the failure, leader Kim Jong Un pledged never to give up space reconnaissance projects.

On Thursday, a North Korean foreign ministry official condemned U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ statement that the attempted launch of another military satellite using ballistic missile technology was against U.N. Security Council resolutions.

In another launch watched by its neighbours, North Korea sent hundreds of balloons carrying trash and excrement across the heavily fortified border to South Korea on Wednesday, prompting an angry response from Seoul, which said the act was base and dangerous.

(Reporting by Ju-min Park in Seoul and Satoshi Sugiyama in Tokyo; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Jamie Freed)