Since then, Pyongyang has launched a long-range rocket; Seoul has shut down the last remaining cooperative project between the rivals, a jointly run factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, and slapped sanctions on the North over its recent nuclear test and rocket launch; the U. The missile firing Thursday comes a day after the North released photos of leader Kim Jong Un standing beside what appears to be a nuclear warhead mock-up.
But North Korea observers said the country could move the remaining manufacturing equipment at Kaesong to other industrial areas or convert them for military use while using South Korean-owned facilities at Diamond Mountain for its own tourism project.
At Kaesong, the South Korean assets include some buildings, manufacturing equipment and finished products. In the mountain resort, South Korean assets are a hotel, a spa, a golf course and a building used for on-and-off reunions of Korean families separated by war.
All of this ratchets up hostility on the already anxious Korean Peninsula. They are believed to be Scud-type missiles, said ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun. Such missile firings by the North are not uncommon when animosity rises here. North Korea hates the massive annual military drills staged by Seoul and Washington, calling them invasion preparations. The allies say the drills, which this year are described as the biggest ever, are defensive and routine.
Pyongyang is also angry over tough United Nations sanctions following its recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch. North Korea on Wednesday caused a new stir by publicizing a purported mock-up of a key part of a nuclear warhead, with leader Kim Jong Un repeating a claim that his country has developed miniaturized atomic bombs that can be placed on missiles.
