South Korea’s military says its fighter jets fired three precision-guided missiles near the rivals’ eastern border on Wednesday.
It says the launches were in response to a barrage of North Korean missile tests early Wednesday. South Korea says one of the North Korean missiles landed near the maritime border.
A television screen shows a file image of North Korea’s missile launch during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022. (AP)
Earlier, air raid sirens sounded in the South after the North fired a dozen missiles in its direction on Wednesday.
The launches came hours after North Korea threatened to use nuclear weapons to make the US and South Korea “pay the most horrific price in history” as it ramped up its fiery rhetoric aimed at military exercises in large scale ongoing between its rivals.
South Korea’s military said North Korea fired more than 10 missiles of various types off its east and west coasts.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement on Wednesday that it detected three short-range ballistic missiles fired from the northeastern coastal city of Wonsan.
It said one of the missiles landed 26 kilometers from the rivals’ maritime border.
The landing site is in international waters, but still well south of the nation’s border extension.
South Korea’s military said it was the first time a North Korean missile had landed so close to the maritime border since the countries’ split in 1948.
In 2010, North Korea fired artillery shells at a frontline South Korean island and allegedly torpedoed a South Korean navy ship, both off the peninsula’s western coast, killing one total of 50 people.
A television screen shows a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul. (AP)
“This is highly unprecedented and we will never tolerate it,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a separate statement.
The North Korean missile’s landing site is also 167 kilometers northwest of South Korea’s Ulleung Island, where an air strike alert was issued.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said South Korea will not tolerate North Korean provocations and will deal with them strictly in close coordination with the United States.
He said South Korea has increased its surveillance posture in North Korea.
Hostilities on the Korean Peninsula have intensified in recent months, with North Korea testing a series of nuclear-capable missiles and adopting a law authorizing the preemptive use of its nuclear weapons in a wide range of situations.
Some experts still doubt that North Korea could use nuclear weapons first against US and South Korean forces.
North Korea has argued that its recent weapons tests were intended to send a warning to Washington and Seoul about its series of joint military exercises it sees as a rehearsal for invasion, including this week’s drills with 240 war planes.
South Korean and U.S. flags wave before a joint South Korean-U.S. river crossing drill in Yeoju, South Korea, Oct. 19, 2022. (AP)
In a statement released early Wednesday, Pak Jong Chon, a secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party who is considered a close confidant of leader Kim Jong-un, called the air force’s storm-watching exercises “aggressive and provocative”.
Pak also accused the Pentagon of framing a collapse of the North Korean regime as a major policy goal in an apparent reference to the Pentagon’s recently released National Defense Strategy report.
The report stated that any nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its allies and partners “will lead to the end of this regime.”
He criticized South Korea’s military leaders for what he called “rubbish” comments that threatened to destroy North Korea if it used nuclear weapons.
South Korea’s military has warned North Korea that using its nuclear weapons would put it on a “path of self-destruction”.
The flags of North Korea, back, and South Korea, front, wave in the wind, as seen from the border area between the two Koreas in Paju, South Korea, on August 9, 2021 (AP)
“If the US and South Korea try to use armed forces against (North Korea) without any fear, the (North’s) armed forces’ special means will carry out their strategic mission without delay,” Pak said, in an apparent reference to the country’s nuclear weapons.
“The US and South Korea will have to face a terrible case and pay the most horrific price in history,” he said.
US and South Korean officials have strongly maintained that their exercises are defensive in nature and that they have no intention of attacking North Korea.
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The White House pushed back against North Korea’s saber rattling on Tuesday, reiterating that the drills are part of a routine training program with South Korea.
“We reject the idea that they serve as any kind of provocation. We have made it clear that we have no hostile intent toward (North Korea) and we call on them to engage in serious and sustained diplomacy,” said Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson of National Security of the White House. said
North Korea “continues to be unresponsive. At the same time, we will continue to work closely with our allies and partners to limit the North’s ability to advance its illegal weapons programs and threaten regional stability,” Watson said .