Soul:
North Korea launched more than a dozen missiles on Wednesday, including one that landed near South Korean waters in what President Yoon Suk-yeol described as a “virtual territorial aggression.”
An air raid warning was issued for Ulleungdo and aired on national television, telling residents to “evacuate to the nearest underground shelter.”
South Korea has also closed some air routes to the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, and advised local airlines to divert them to “ensure the safety of passengers on routes to the United States and Japan.”
A short-range ballistic missile crossed the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border between the two countries, and issued a rare warning to residents of Ulleungdo’s island to take refuge in bunkers.
The military said it was “the first time since the peninsula was divided” at the end of hostilities in the 1953 Korean War that a North Korean missile had landed so close in its southern territorial waters.
“(Yoon) pointed out today that the North Korean provocation was an effective territorial aggression with a missile that crossed the Northern Limit Line for the first time since the division,” his office said in a statement.
The missile closest to South Korea landed in waters 57 kilometers (35 miles) east of the South Korean mainland, according to the military.
In a statement, the military said a missile launch near South Korea’s territorial waters was “extremely rare and intolerable.”
“Our military has pledged to respond decisively to this (provocation),” he added.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff initially announced that it had detected three short-range ballistic missile launches.
But it later announced that North Korea had launched “at least 10 missiles of various types to the east and west today.”
Yun Suk-yeol convened a meeting of the National Security Council on the launch and ordered “quick and stern measures to ensure that the North Korean provocation pays a clear price.”
Japan also confirmed North Korea’s missile launches, and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters it planned to convene a “National Security Council” “as soon as possible.”
alert storm
Pyongyang’s latest launch is Seoul and Washington’s largest joint aviation exercise in history, dubbed “Vigilant Storm,” involving hundreds of fighter jets from both sides.
A senior North Korean official, Park Jong Chong, said the drill was aggressive and provocative, according to a state media report on Wednesday.
Park said the name of the exercise evokes Operation Desert Storm, the US-led military offensive into Iraq after the 1990-1991 invasion of Kuwait.
“If the United States and South Korea are willing to use force[against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea]without any fear, the North Korean military’s special tools will carry out its strategic mission without delay,” he said. rice field.
“The United States and South Korea will face horrific events and pay the most horrific price in history.”
close to korea
One of Wednesday’s missiles landed in waters 57 kilometers (35 miles) east of the South Korean mainland, the military said.
“North Korea appears to have staged its most aggressive and threatening armed demonstration against South Korea since 2010 in protest against joint US-South Korea exercises,” Sejong Institute researcher Chung Sung-chan told AFP. ‘ said.
In March 2010, a North Korean submarine torpedoed a South Korean naval vessel, Cheonan, killing 46 sailors, including 16 on duty.
In November of the same year, North Korea shelled an island bordering South Korea, killing two Marines. Both were young conscripts.
“We are currently in a dangerous and unstable situation that could lead to armed conflict,” he added.
The test follows a series of recent launches, including what North Korea has described as a tactical nuclear test, and Washington and Seoul said it could culminate in North Korea’s seventh nuclear test. It has repeatedly warned that
Vigilant Storm’s aerial training was preceded by 12 days of amphibious maneuvers.
“As far as I remember, North Korea never made such a provocation when South Korea and the United States were conducting joint exercises,” Ewha University professor Park Won-gon told AFP. said.
“North Korea seems to have completed the most powerful deterrent. This is a serious threat. North Korea also seems confident in its nuclear capabilities.”
(Except for the headline, this article is unedited by NDTV staff and published from a syndicated feed.)
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