North Korea is preparing to fire multiple short-range rockets around the opening of the Chinese Communist Party’s twice-a-decade congress on Oct. 18, a South Korean daily newspaper reported.
The South Korean and U.S. militaries have recently spotted about 30 Scud rockets being moved from Hwangju, south of the capital Pyongyang, to a missile maintenance facility in the western coastal city of Nampo, the Seoul-based Asia Business Daily said, citing an unidentified person.
While launching dozens of short-range rockets simultaneously is unusual, it’s not unprecedented. In March 2014, Kim Jong Un’s regime fired 71 of them in a single week. Such a move would also show how North Korea is capable of various types of provocation, having spent the past few months testing missiles that could potentially deliver a nuclear warhead to the U.S. mainland.
Firing the missiles would be an act of protest against the U.S. and South Korea’s joint military exercises, which include mobilizing key American assets such as aircraft carriers, the daily said.
