North Korea fired three short-range ballistic missiles Saturday, the US military said.

The launches come as tens of thousands of South Korean and US troops take part in joint military drills in the south of the peninsula, which the North views as highly provocative.

Following an initial US assessment saying that two of the missiles had “failed in flight”, a spokesman for the US Pacific Command later said the two weapons had not failed but “flew approximately 250 kilometers (155 miles) in a northeastern direction”.

One of the three missiles blew up “almost immediately”, with none of the weapons posing a threat to either North America or the US territory of Guam, the spokesman said.

The launches, which took place over a span of 30 minutes, came as North Korean state media reported that leader Kim Jong-Un oversaw a military exercise simulating a special forces assault on South Korean border islands involving aircraft, “multiple-missile launchers” and howitzers.

Shells hit islands standing in for South Korea’s Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong islands while special forces landed in rubber boats or parachuted in and “wiped out the desperate enemy with various combat methods”, the Korean Central News Agency said.

Source: AFP