Defense ministry: N. Korea projectiles likely ballistic missiles, not artillery

軍 "北발사체 단거리 탄도미사일 가능성 높아…한미 중간평가" The projectiles North Korea launched on Saturday are likely to have been short-range missiles. That's coming from Seoul's defense ministry. It's a change from the early assessment which was in line with that of Washington. Kwon Jang-ho starts us off with the correction that's raising quite a few eyebrows. An official at South Korea's Defense Ministry revealed on Monday details of an interim report regarding North Korea's latest missile launch. After reviewing the data in conjunction with Washington, Seoul now believes the 3 projectiles that were fired on Saturday into the East Sea were most likely short-range ballistic missiles. This concurs with initial assessments made by the U.S. Pacific Command on Saturday, which said the three missiles were SRBMs. However, the defense ministry's assessment contradicts an announcement by the top office, who said the missiles were thought to be 300mm artillery rockets. When asked why the Blue House had come to this contrary conclusion, the defense ministry official said that the early data, such as speed and height of the missiles, had pointed towards artillery rockets, rather than ballistic missiles. Experts say the confusion can be understandable, but there are concerns towards how Seoul handled the matter, especially when it made an announcement that contradicted what its military partner, the U.S., was saying. (Korean - ) "It was assessed to be an artillery rocket because the height only reached 50 kilometers, but I think that was a mistake. North Korea have short-range ballistic missiles, such as the KN-02, which has a very low trajectory. The top office should have taken this into account, but it was too quick to announce a conclusion." The defense ministry also stated that it believes the launches were in protest to the joint South Korea-U.S. military drills that are currently taking place. But there are also suggestions that the launches were rather aimed at undermining the U.S. missile defense system THAAD, which has been deployed in South Korea. (KOREAN) "It's more difficult to catch a fast, low-flying ball than a ball tossed high up in the air, and the same applies for the anti-missile system. The THAAD system wouldn't be much use if a missile flew in at a low altitude." The ministry said that it will issue a final conclusive report soon...but regardless of the type of missiles Pyongyang launched over the weekend, the act still signifies a provocation by the rogue regime. Kwon Jang-ho, Arirang News. Visit ‘Arirang News’ Official Pages Facebook(NEWS):   / newsarirang   Homepage: http://www.arirang.com Facebook:   / arirangtv   Twitter:   / arirangworld   Instagram:   / arirangworld