President to chair first NSC meeting over N. Korean missile launches

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has convened a meeting of the National Security Council on Thursday to discuss possible measures against North Korea's repeated rocket and missile launches, the presidential office said.

The first NSC meeting to be chaired by the president will be held at 2 p.m., according to the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.

The meeting follows North Korea's launch of what appeared to be short-range surface-to-ship cruise missiles earlier in the day.

The missiles launched Thursday had a short range of around 200 kilometers, but they marked the fifth rocket launches by the communist state since the Moon Jae-in administration came into office May 10.

Pyongyang also launched what it claimed to be a new intermediate range ballistic missile, the Pukguksong-2, on May 21.

Moon ordered the NSC to convene shortly after the North's launch of the Pukguksong-2 missile. The meeting was presided over by his chief security adviser and head of the presidential National Security Office Chung Eui-yong, who also serves as the chairman of the NSC standing committee, according to Cheong Wa Dae officials. (Yonhap)