North Korea likely wanted to show off its ability to launch a precision strike at s US aircraft carrier in the region, South Korea’s military spokesman Roh Jae-cheon said Thursday.
A salvo of short-range surface-to-ship missiles was fired early Thursday off the North’s eastern coast. They reportedly traveled some 125 miles, going as high as 1.2 miles, before falling into the Sea of Japan.
Army Col. Roh suggested Pyongyang aimed at “showing off its capability with various types of missiles and demonstrating its anti-ship precision-strike ability in connection with joint maritime drills involving U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups,” according to the local news agency Yonhap.
The United States has dispatched two aircraft carriers to the waters off the Korean peninsula this year as a show of force and for joint drills with Japanese warships. Pyongyang threatened to sink a carrier in April.