SEOUL – North Korea’s military showed unusual activity close to the South Korean border, Seoul defense officials said, while leader Kim Jong-un and Chinese leader Xi Jinping exchanged messages promising unity amid mounting tensions between the USA and China.
Officials in Seoul declined on Tuesday to elaborate on the nature of the activities. South Korean media had previously reported that Pyongyang deployed 240-millimeter rocket launchers on Changrin, an island about 20 miles from South Korea.
“US and South Korean intelligence officials are in close contact and oversee North Korea’s armed forces,” a Seoul military spokesman told reporters. “We are not ruling out any possibility.”
The latest versions of that weapon could hit South Korean military bases and warships in the Yellow Sea and were showcased at a parade in Pyongyang last year, but a North Korea expert warned against calling the move a provocation. consider. “They upgrade their weapons, just as we upgrade our tanks or fighter jets,” 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 exchanged messages emphasizing stronger strategic cooperation in the face of unnamed “hostile forces.”