SEOUL – North Korea’s military has shown unusual activity near the South Korean border, defense officials in Seoul said, while leader Kim Jong Un and Chinese leader Xi Jinping exchanged messages amid growing tensions between the United States and China .
Officials in Seoul on Tuesday did not want to elaborate on the nature of the activities. South Korean media reported earlier that Pyongyang used 240-millimeter rockets to Changrin, an island about 20 kilometers from South Korea.
“U.S. and South Korean intelligence officials are in close contact and are monitoring the North Korean military,” a Seoul military spokesman told reporters. “We do not rule out any possibility.”
The latest versions of the weapon could hit South Korean military bases and warships in the Yellow Sea and were unveiled during a parade in Pyongyang last year, but a North Korean expert warned of the move as a to read provocation. “They are upgrading their weapons, just like we are upgrading tanks or planes,” said Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
The development was announced hours after China and North Korea said their leaders had exchanged messages with the emphasis on stronger strategic cooperation, amid unnamed “hostile forces”.