SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea on Tuesday showed detailed photos of Kim Jong Un directing rocket launches from a site close to the South in an apparent act of defiance that puts a personal face of its leader to actions provoking its neighbors. Satellite imagery and photos released by state media show the rockets were fired several miles north of a popular South Korean tourist observatory near the inter-Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
The roar of rockets and the burning trails from the Soviet-era projectiles on Monday could be seen rising from clouds of smoke between mountains on the North Korean side, footage filmed by staff members at the observatory and obtained by Reuters showed. It was not immediately clear why North Korea conducted drills so close to the border, but state media has in recent days called the presence of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier in South Korea a "sinister interference." North Korea routinely fires short range missiles or rockets into waters off its east and west coasts, but state media rarely shows Kim supervising drills so close to South Korea and has only in recent weeks shown the young leader present at short-range ballistic missile and rocket launches. North and South Korea are still technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
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