North Korea fires 2 missiles after US submarine arrives in South Korea By Kim Tong-Hyung, The Associated Press Jul 25, 05:41 AM

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into its eastern sea, South Korea’s military said Tuesday, adding to a recent streak in weapons testing that is apparently in protest of the U.S. sending major naval assets to South Korea in a show of force.

In its third round of launches since last week, North Korea fired the missiles consecutively between around 11:55 p.m. local time Monday and midnight from an area near its capital, Pyongyang, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. It said both missiles traveled around 400 kilometers (248 miles) before landing in waters off the Korean Peninsula’s eastern coast and that the South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies were analyzing the launchesJapan’s Coast Guard urged vessels in affected areas to watch out for falling debris but there were no immediate reports of damage.

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff in a statement condemned North Korea’s missile launches as a “grave provocation” that threaten regional peace and stability, and said the South Korean and U.S. militaries are working together to tighten their monitoring of North Korean military activities.

The launches came hours after South Korea’s navy said a nuclear-propelled U.S. submarine — the USS Annapolis — arrived at a port on Jeju Island. That underscored the allies’ efforts to boost the visibility of U.S. strategic assets in the region to intimidate the North.