In a display of defiance, North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles into the eastern sea early Wednesday, coinciding with the deployment of a U.S. nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea for the first time in decades.

The missile launches occurred while the U.S.-led United Nations Command was engaged in efforts to secure the release of a U.S. soldier who had defected to North Korea from the South Korean side of a border village on Tuesday afternoon.

The soldier, Private 2nd Class Travis King, in his early 20s, had recently been released from a South Korean prison where he had been detained on assault charges, the Associated Press has reported.

Instead of boarding a plane to return to Fort Bliss, Texas, he chose to join a tour of the Korean border village of Panmunjom and subsequently crossed the border into North Korea, according to U.S. officials.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that between 3:30 and 3:46 a.m., North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles from an area near the capital, Pyongyang.

These missiles traveled approximately 550 kilometers (341 miles) before landing in waters east of the Korean Peninsula.

Written by staff