North Korea fired at least 10 missiles on Wednesday, including one that fell near South Korean territorial waters, in what Seoul’s military said ‘for the first time’, prompting a rare airstrike alert on the South Korean island.
“(This is) a highly unusual and unacceptable North Korean missile launch, which is the first time it has landed near South Korean waters south of the northern demarcation line,” Kang Shin-chul, operations director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters since the separation of the peninsula.
South Korean officials on Wednesday asked residents of Ulleungdo Island off its east coast to evacuate to bunkers after North Korea fired three short-range ballistic missiles, Seoul said.
An air raid warning broadcast by authorities on national television asked Ulleungdo residents to “evacuate to the nearest underground shelter”.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has called a meeting of the National Security Council over the launch, which analysts say is the most “aggressive and threatening” in years.
Japan, which is suspected of having fired North Korea’s missiles, also confirmed its coast guard had advised ships to be cautious.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters he wanted to “hold a national security meeting soon” because of “rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.”
Seoul and Washington are currently conducting the largest joint air exercise in their history, dubbed “Vigilent Storm,” involving hundreds of warplanes from both forces.
Park Jong Son, a North Korean field marshal and secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party, said the drills were aggressive, North Korea’s official press release said on Wednesday.
“If the United States and South Korea try to fearlessly use their armed forces against (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea), the special means of the DPRK armed forces will fulfill their strategic mission without delay,” Mr. Bach said. State agency KCNA.
“The United States and South Korea will have to face a terrible bargain and pay the most terrible price in history,” Bach added.
One of the missiles fell into the sea 57 kilometers (35 miles) east of the South Korean mainland, the South Korean military said.
Last Friday, the South Korean military fired two short-range ballistic missiles at Pyongyang.
