North Korea said on Monday it had recently carried out “military operations” including more than 80 missile launches in response to a large-scale US-South Korean air drill, and promised “overwhelming practical military measures” to keep countering their drills.
Pyongyang launched the missiles between Wednesday and Saturday while the Vigilant Storm air exercise was taking place in South Korea, according to a report by the Korean People’s Army General Staff released by the North’s official Central News Agency.
The first major joint U.S.-South Korea air exercise in five years, involving some 240 aircraft, including strategic bombers and fighter jets, was initially scheduled for five days through Friday but was extended by another day. in response to North Korean missile launches.
The North Korean military also claimed to have fired two strategic cruise missiles into international waters in the Sea of Japan, about 80 kilometers off the coast of Ulsan, South Korea, on Wednesday afternoon.
However, South Korea’s Defense Ministry on Monday denied the North’s claim, saying no missile had been detected in the area.
The South Korean military has said a North Korean short-range ballistic missile landed Wednesday morning on the southern side of the North Limit Line, the two countries’ de facto maritime border, for the first time since the Korean Peninsula was partitioned. . The LNL was drawn up by the United States-led UN forces after the 1950-1953 Korean War.
North Korea said on Monday that it had recently carried out “military operations” that included more than 80 missile launches.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry also said Monday that it has been analyzing what is believed to be debris from the ballistic missile that passed through the NLL.
On Monday, South Korea began computer-simulated training until Thursday to increase its defense capabilities.
The North Korean military also said it last Thursday conducted “an important test firing of a ballistic missile to verify the reliability of the movement of a special functional warhead that cripples the enemy’s operations command system.”
North Korea fires 4 short-range ballistic missiles off its western coast
Thursday’s test firing is believed to refer to the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, apparently a Hwasong-17, which the South’s military believes ended in failure, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
The North’s military called Storm Watcher a “dangerous war game of a very aggressive nature” that was “directly targeting” North Korea, the KCNA reported.
The report concluded by stating that the longer the “provocative” operations of the country’s enemies continue, the more its army will respond “more thoroughly and mercilessly.”
Meanwhile, senior diplomats from Japan, the United States and South Korea on Monday strongly condemned the North’s “very high frequency” ballistic missile launches, saying they constitute “serious and imminent threats” to regional security and pose a “clear and serious challenge” to the international community.
Thursday’s test firing is believed to refer to the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, apparently a Hwasong-17.
Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Mori, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun Dong also agreed in their phone talks to strengthen deterrence to achieve denuclearization of the North, amid fears that Pyongyang may soon carry out its seventh nuclear test, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.
