South Korea: In what President Yoon Suk-yeol described as “essentially a territorial invasion,” North Korea fired at least 17 missiles on Wednesday, one of which came down close to South Korea’s territorial seas.
In what experts claimed was part of a “aggressive and threatening” response by Pyongyang to the extensive joint air manoeuvres that the United States and South Korea are presently conducting, it also fired an artillery barrage into a sea “buffer zone.”
One short-range ballistic missile breached the de facto maritime border known as the Northern Limit Line, triggering an unusual warning for Ulleungdo people to take refuge in bunkers.
When hostilities in the Korean War came to an end in 1953, Seoul’s military claimed that a North Korean missile had landed so close to the South’s territorial waters for the “first time since the peninsula was divided.”
According to a statement from his office, “President Yoon stressed out today that North Korea’s provocation is an effective territory invasion by a missile.”
The military described it as a “extremely rare and intolerable” incident after one of the missiles fell in waters barely 57 km (35 miles) east of the continent.
According to Seoul’s military, Pyongyang launched 10 additional missiles in addition to seven short-range ballistic missiles.
Additionally, North Korea launched an artillery barrage into a marine “buffer-zone” that had been established in 2018 as part of a botched diplomatic effort to ease tensions between the two nations.
A scholar at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies named Go Myong-hyun claimed that the massive barrage of launches were “provocations against South Korea.”
He continued, “I wouldn’t be astonished if they build up to a nuclear test.”
For its part, South Korea said that it had launched three air-to-ground missiles into the water near the northern portion of the two nations’ maritime border.
The National Security Council was convened by President Yoon, who gave the directive to take “rapid and stern actions so that North Korea’s provocations pay a clear price.”
On order to “ensure passenger safety in the routes to the United States and Japan,” South Korea stopped some flight routes over the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, and advised local airlines to divert.
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Observant Storm
The most recent launch from Pyongyang occurs as hundreds of warplanes from both sides participate in the largest-ever joint air drills between Seoul and Washington, known as “Vigilant Storm.”
According to a report in state media on Wednesday, Pak Jong Chon, a high-ranking official in North Korea, called the drills aggressive and provocative.
The name of the training exercises, according to Pak, is a reference to Operation Desert Storm, the US-led military offensive against Iraq in 1990–1991 after it occupied Kuwait.
“The special means of the DPRK’s military forces will carry out its strategic objective without delay,” he stated, “if the US and South Korea attempt to employ armed forces against the (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) without any fear.”
The worst price in history will be paid by the US and South Korea in a horrific case.
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Near South Korea
According to the military, one of the missiles on Wednesday touched down barely 57 kilometres (35 miles) east of the South Korean mainland.
Cheong Seong-chang, a researcher at the Sejong Institute, told AFP that Pyongyang appeared to have mounted the most aggressive and threatening armed demonstration against the South since 2010, in protest of the joint US-South Korea practise.
A North Korean submarine torpedoed the South Korean naval ship Cheonan in March 2010, killing 46 servicemen, including 16 who were doing their conscription.
Two marines—both teenage conscripts—were killed when the North shelled a South Korean border island in November of that same year.
He continued, “It is currently a hazardous and unstable position that may result in military clashes.”
The launch spree that included what Pyongyang claimed were tactical nuclear drills was recently followed by the test, which Washington and Seoul have repeatedly warned may lead to Pyongyang’s seventh nuclear test.
Twelve days of amphibious naval training were conducted before the Vigilant Storm air drills.
According to Park Won-gon, a professor at Ewha University, “As far as I can recall, North Korea has never made such a provocation when South Korea and the US were doing their joint drills.”
“It appears that Pyongyang has finished building its most potent deterrent. This poses a very real hazard. Additionally, the North appears to be confident in their nuclear power.”
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