LOC10:47
07:47 GMT
TOKYO, Aug 29 (KUNA) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in ordered his country's military Tuesday to display its capabilities that can overwhelm North Korea should the communist state decide to attack, Yonhap News Agency reported.
The order came hours after Pyongyang launched what appeared to be an intermediate range ballistic missile that flew over Japan, according to the presidential office.
The show of overwhelming force involved the dropping of eight MK-84 multipurpose bombs by four F-15K fighter jets at a shooting range near the inter-Korean border in Taebaek, Moon's chief press secretary Yoon Young-chan was quoted as telling reporters in Seoul.
Tuesday's missile launch by the North marked the 13th of its kind since the beginning of the year, and the ninth since the Moon Jae-in administration took office in May.
The missile was fired eastward from the vicinity of Sunan in Pyongyang and passed through the sky over Japan" and before falling into the North Pacific Ocean, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
The projectile, presumed to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile, flew more than 2,700 km at a maximum altitude of around 550 km, according to the JCS. The North appears to be trying to show off its capability of striking major US military facilities in Japan and Guam, and protesting ongoing US-South Korean military drills, it said. (pickup previous)
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