(LEAD) Seoul says N. Korea fired apparently new type of short-range ballistic missile

(ATTN: UPDATES with more info)

SEOUL, July 25 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's top security officials expressed "strong concerns" Thursday over the North Korea's firing of two projectiles that they believed to be a new type of short-range ballistic missile.

The North launched two missiles from its east coast early in the day, both of which flew hundreds of kilometers.

South Korea's presidential National Security Council (NSC) tentatively concluded that those were "a new kind of short-range ballistic missile," Cheong Wa Dae said in a press release.

They plan to make a final assessment later on the basis of a joint examination with the United States, it added.

The NSC standing members expressed "strong concerns" over Pyongyang's provocation, saying it does not help efforts to ease military tensions on the peninsula.

The North is prohibited from making launches using ballistic missile technology under U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Chung Eui-yong, the national security adviser, presided over the NSC session. The other members of the NSC panel, who hold a weekly meeting, include the foreign, defense and unification ministers, as well as the director of the National Intelligence Service.

They also discussed the recent Middle East security conditions and reviewed ways to secure the free navigation of South Korea's civilian ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. reportedly wants South Korea and some other nations to dispatch troops and naval ships to the waters near Iran.

With regard to a Russian military plane's intrusion into South Korea's aerospace earlier this week, they reaffirmed the government's "stern position," Cheong Wa Dae added.

lcd@yna.co.kr
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