Defiance has characterized North Korea in its long political conflict with the US and its western allies; and this year’s Independence Day brought America a unique political greeting from North Korea – testing 7 ballistic missiles on July 04, 2009. The missiles were test-fired off the east coast, symbolically sticking the US pressure and asserting its sown independence.

Launching of the ballistic missiles took place 8 o’clock in the morning to 5:40 in the afternoon, as confirmed by Seoul military sources. It was the biggest weapon-testing episode in military ballistics of the country since July 04, 2006 (on which date, North Korea had –had fired one long-range and six small missiles). Military sources from Seoul did not disclose the type of the ballistic missiles test-fired by North Korea on Saturday but told that their range was around 500 km.