N. Korea launches short-range missiles for two straight days

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Sunday launched short-range missiles for a second straight day amid continued joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States.

The DPRK fired 16 short-range rockets, possibly the FROG surface-to-surface missiles, from 0:52 a.m. to 2:21 a.m. local time, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff city by local media.

Those rockets, flew around 60 km, were fired from Wonsan areas in the DPRK's southeastern coast toward the eastern open waters.

Pyongyang launched 30 FROG missiles from the same place Saturday morning. On March 16, it fired off 25 FROG missiles, which were introduced by the DPRK from the Soviet Union from the 1960s.

This time, Pyongyang also failed to issue a no-fly, no- navigation warning before the missile launches, endangering civilian ships and airplanes possibly flying through the region when the missiles were launched.

In what appeared to be a protest against the joint annual military exercises by South Korea and the United States, the DPRK fired off multiple short-range missiles and artillery shells seven times starting from Feb. 21, which Seoul called as an armed protest and a show of force.

The"Key Resolve"command post exercise began on Feb. 24 and ended on March 6. The"Foal Eagle"field training exercise will last until April 18 despite the DPRK's earlier call for delay or cancellation of the drills, which Pyongyang has denounced as the rehearsal for a northward invasion.

The DPRK said on March 5 that its recent short-range missile launches were"successful normal training" within its own territory.