It appears Kim Jong Un is back to firing off ballistic missiles again, but this time officials are saying he’s firing more powerful short-rang ballistic missiles than before:
FOX NEWS – North Korea test-fired a new type of short-range ballistic missile, a U.S. official who reviewed the latest intelligence assessment of the launch told Fox News on Thursday.
The first missile flew 270 miles early Thursday morning local time, but the second missile fired off about 30 minutes later is the one officials are most concerned about. It flew roughly 430 miles putting all of South Korea in range.
“It’s like putting a V8 engine on a V6,” said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the intelligence assessment and requested anonymity to discuss the missile launches, the first by the rogue communist regime since early May, and the first since President Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the DMZ last month.
The official said the new North Korean short-range missiles are similar to the ones fired off in May, but the missiles launched early this morning from the east coast town of Wonsan appear more powerful.
The missile launches come two days after Kim Jong Un was photographed at a North Korean shipyard where a new type of ballistic-missile carrying submarine is being constructed, according to Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the communist government’s propaganda arm.
U.S. officials say it’s not immediately clear if this new type of ballistic missile test-fired from a mobile launcher could be modified to fit on the submarine to be able to launch from under the sea in the future.
Fox News also notes something important about these missile launches:
The launch took place as Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton wrapped up a visit to Seoul, South Korea, the Kim regime called Bolton a “warmonger” and “human defect” following comments he made in May after North Korea’s last missile test, which officials said were based on a Russian design.
So he’s not just firing these missiles for the heck of it. He’s sending a message to Trump.
After all the negotiations and limelight, it’s starting to look like we’re nearly back to where we started.