SEOUL, July 19 (UPI) -- The three ballistic missiles North Korea fired early Tuesday were target practice for potential strikes against South Korean ports and airfields.
According to a KCTV segment that aired Wednesday, local time, the Korean People's Army's strategic military unit launched the ballistic missiles in training for future attacks on "U.S. imperialist nuclear equipment" that could move into South Korean ports and airfields at the time of a preemptive strike.
North Korea's Workers' Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun also ran eight photographs of Kim Jong Un allegedly providing field guidance to the KPA.
In Seoul two of the projectiles were Scud-C missiles, also known as the Hwasong-6, and the third missile was identified as the Hwasong-7, also known as the Rodong missile.
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The missiles were being tested for possible strikes against ports in the South Korean cities of Pohang, Busan and Gimhae, if preemptive U.S. military reinforcements were to arrive in those areas.
Both the United States and South Korea military have clarified if war were to break out on the peninsula U.S. reinforcements would arrive from the U.S. mainland as well as from neighboring Japan.
The Scud-C has a maximum range of 430 miles and the Rodong can travel up to 800 miles, but North Korea tested the projectiles within a limited range by launching the missiles at an angle over 85 degrees, according to South Korea press.
North Korea had not launched a short-range Scud missile since March, and the provocation is believed to be a reaction to a July 8 decision to deploy a U.S. anti-missile defense system in South Korea.
