ARIRANG NEWS 16:00 North Korea fires 25 short-range missiles into East Sea

North Korea fired off dozens of short range missiles into the East Sea on Sunday. Seoul and Washington view this as another "provocation" and have urged Pyongyang to halt any further actions that would bring about military tensions. Our defense ministry correspondent Kim Hyun-bin reports. South Korea's defense ministry officials say they think North Korea's missile launches on Sunday were carried out in response to annual military drills between Seoul and Washington that are still going on. "North Korea fired off 25 missiles at three different times on Sunday. We view this as an armed protest against our joint military exercises with the U.S. North Korea needs to stop its provocations." The U.S. State Department said Sunday that it is well aware of the missile launches and urged North Korea to stop its provocations, which it said are escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang did not give any prior notification about the launch. The rockets, which were shot into the East Sea, are believed to have a range of 70 kilometers. They were launched between 6:20 p.m. and 9:32 p.m., Korea time, from a location near Wonsan along the east coast. Experts say it's not unusual for North Korea to test-fire missiles, but it is unprecedented for the regime to fire off so many in one day. Officials in Seoul believe the rockets were Soviet-made surface-to-surface FROGs, which lack precision but are very powerful. "The precision is low, but the missiles can carry up to 550 kilograms of explosives. It can also deliver chemical weapons capable of destroying a military corps." North Korea has test-fired six Scud missiles along with 11 rockets from multiple rocket launchers... in the midst of the annual military exercises, which started late last month and will run through mid-April. Seoul and Washington say the drills are purely defensive, but Pyongyang routinely condemns them as a rehearsal for invasion. "The latest rocket launches came just two days after Pyongyang threatened to demonstrate its nuclear deterrence. Those comments seem to be a firm indication North Korea may be preparing a fourth nuclear test. Kim Hyun-bin, Arirang News."