North Korea is still test-firing ballistic missiles as the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic.
South Korea said that the hermit nation fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast early Saturday morning local time. The missiles reportedly went more than 250 miles and peaked at about 30 miles high.
“North Korea’s military action is a greatly inappropriate act as the world faces difficulties with the World Health Organization declaring coronavirus a pandemic,” Seoul’s military said.
The launch comes a little more than a year after President Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s meeting in Vietnam last February. The summit was cut short after the parties couldn’t reach a substantive agreement on North Korean denuclearization. Since that time, North Korea has performed a number of missile tests.
A day before Saturday’s tests, Kim oversaw an “artillery fire competition,” according to state-run media. North Korea has denied having any cases of the coronavirus despite reports that claim hundreds have died.
Worldwide, there have been more than 274,000 cases of the coronavirus, about 88,000 recoveries, and more than 11,300 deaths, according to the latest reading by the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
