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of a multiple rocket launcher round fired by North Korea on July 14. The flames of the blast are encircled in red. (Yonhap News)

By Choi Hyun-june, staff reporter

On Aug. 14, the day that Pope Francis arrived in Seoul on a chartered flight, North Korea fired five rounds from a 300mm multiple rocket launcher into the East Sea.

“North Korea launched three rounds around 9:30 this morning and two rounds around 1 this afternoon from the Wonsan area in Gangwon Province toward the northeast and into the East Sea. There was no warning for ships to avoid the area. We believe the rockets flew about 220 km,” a Joint Chiefs of Staff official said.

This is the 17th time that North Korea has fired projectiles in 2014. Two weeks had passed since the previous launch on July 30, when the North fired four short-range projectiles, presumably from a 300mm multiple rocket launcher, near Myohyang Mountain in Pyongan province.

From February until now, North Korea has shot a total of 105 short- and mid-range projectiles, including rounds from its new 300 multiple rocket launcher, Scud missiles, Rodong missiles, and Frog rockets.

“This launch appears to have the dual intention of improving the performance of the missile launcher and also acting as a military show of force,” said a military officer on condition of anonymity. Considering that the previous maximum range of the 300mm multiple rocket launcher was around 210km, this test launch suggests that the North has increased the weapon’s range.

Some analysts are also linking the launch with the arrival of Pope Francis in Korea. They suggest that, by timing the launch of the rockets with the pope’s arrival in Seoul, they hoped to remind him that the Korean peninsula is a region with high military tensions and to push him to send a strong message for peace.

The North also launched rockets and missiles just before Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to South Korea on July 3, and it fired a Rodong missile when the trilateral summit between South Korea, the US, and Japan was held in the Hague at the end of March.

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