North Korea fired two short-range missiles on Saturday early hours

The South Korean presidential office said in a statement on Saturday, North Korea fired two projectiles into the sea off its eastern coast (Hamhung area) in early hours, in its latest weapons launch following a series of missile tests in recent months, Reuters reports.

“The launch on Saturday morning was aimed at testing capabilities of North Korea’s new type of short-range missile it is developing on its own, as well as protesting South Korea-U.S. joint drills this month”, the statement read.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff noted: “More missile launches are highly probable, as the North Korean military is conducting its own summer drills.”

In response to the missiles launch, a US official said, “We are aware of reports of a missile launch from North Korea, and we continue to monitor the situation. We are consulting closely with our Japanese and South Korean allies.”

The previous North Korean missiles launch reports had limited impact on the broad market sentiment. Therefore, the reports of the latest missiles fired could also fail to deter the risk sentiment, as the US-China trade tensions are likely to overshadow.

The USD/JPY pair slipped to fresh seven-month lows of 105.25 on Friday after the US President Trump’s comments on US-China trade dispute that sent the Treasry yields tumbling across the curve. The spot managed to recover a part of the decline to close near 105.70 region.