North Korea has fired three ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast, according to South Korea’s military.<br /><br /> It’s the latest in a series of such moves by the isolated communist country which are seen as provocative.<br /><br /> Analysts believe this was a political show of force on the part of Pyongyang’s leadership rather than a technical experiment to improve the country’s missile capacity.<br /><br /> The missiles were fired a distance of hundreds of kilometres, far enough to threaten the whole of the South.<br /><br /> In parliament in Seoul the prime minister issued this warning.<br /><br /> “North Korea not only conducted its nuclear test but also has been continuously launching ballistic missiles (this year), which was a rare phenomenon in the past. The threat to our national security has grown very quickly in a short period of time,” Hwang Kyo-Ahn said.<br /><br /> The launches came days after South Korea and the United States announced a final decision to deploy an anti-missile system in the South to counter threats from the North, prompting Pyongyang to threaten a “physical response”.<br />
