SEOUL – North Korea’s military has displayed unusual activities near the South Korean border, Seoul defense officials said, while leader Kim Jong Un and Chinese leader Xi Jinping exchanged messages swearing unity amid rising US-China tensions.
Seoul officials declined on Tuesday to explain the nature of the activities. South Korean media reported earlier that Pyongyang has launched 240mm rocket launchers into Changrin, an island about 20 miles from South Korea.
“US and South Korean intelligence officials are closely linked and monitoring North Korea’s armed forces,” a reporter told a Seoul military spokesman. “We do not rule out any possibility.”
The latest versions of this weapon could hit South Korean military bases and warships in the Yellow Sea and were presented at a parade in Pyongyang last year, but an expert in North Korea warned not to read the move as a challenge. “They are modernizing their weapons, just like we are modernizing our tanks or planes,” said Kim Dong-yub, a professor at North Korean University in Seoul.
The development was announced just hours after China and North Korea said their leaders had exchanged messages emphasizing stronger strategic cooperation in the face of unnamed “hostile forces.”