North Korea is said to have recently deployed a set of multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) to islets near their front line in the Yellow Sea.

The number of launchers deployed to regions near the southernmost Mu islet has not yet been confirmed.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited the Mu and Jangjae islets last August and March of this year to direct shooting drills.

The South Korean military believes that the MRLS the North deployed in the regions is the 122 millimeter launchers the North used in shelling South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island in 2010. Mu islet is located about ten kilometers from Yeonpyeong Island.

A South Korean military official said the South’s recent deployment of Israeli-made Spike missiles on Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong islands in the Yellow Sea is not related to the North’s latest deployment.

The official said the South has been reinforcing military power in the region based on various scenarios, adding that the South is closely watching developments on the North’s deployment of rocket launchers.

On what North Korea fired toward the East Sea on Saturday and Sunday, Defense Ministry Spokesman Kim Min-seok told reporters on Monday that they are likely to be short-range missiles or rockets of great caliber.

The spokesman stressed that it is a greater threat to the South if the North uses weapons of expanded range and caliber.

Kim said given that rockets of large caliber have only been partially developed in China and Russia, it is unlikely that North has deployed them. He added that the North may be in the process of developing such rockets.