North Korea fired at least 23 missiles on Wednesday, including one very close to South Korea’s territorial waters, whose President Yoon Suk-yeol denounced it as “a de facto territorial invasion.”
South Korea’s military initially reported that Pyongyang had fired 10 missiles, and later gradually unveiled the other 13 launches.
The North also fired a hundred artillery shots at a maritime border area, in what experts consider part of an “aggressive and threatening” response by Pyongyang to military exercises conducted by the United States and South Korea.
This burst of gunfire led the South Korean authorities to issue an unusual air raid alert on the island of Ulleungdo (east) and to ask its inhabitants to take refuge in underground bunkers.
According to the South Korean military, one of the projectiles launched by Pyongyang crossed the northern boundary line, the disputed maritime border between the two countries, and landed near the South’s territorial waters.
They said it was “the first time since the peninsula was divided” at the end of the Korean War in 1953 that a North Korean missile landed so close to the South’s territorial waters.
In a statement, the South Korean president said that this “constitutes a territorial invasion in fact with a missile that crossed the northern boundary line for the first time since the division” of the peninsula in 1953.
The military said the nearest missile fell into the sea just 57 kilometers east of the South Korean mainland, describing this launch as “very unusual and intolerable.”
In response to these actions, the South Korean military fired three air-to-surface missiles near the point where the controversial North Korean projectile landed.
These missiles landed “near the northern boundary line at a distance corresponding to the area where the North’s missile hit,” it said in a statement.
South Korea’s military said Pyongyang fired a total of seven short-range ballistic missiles and 16 other missiles, including six surface-to-air.
The South Korean president convened a meeting of his National Security Council to discuss the shooting, and ordered a “swift and severe response” to these “provocations.”
Read: North Korea declares itself a nuclear-armed state
The country’s authorities also canceled air routes over the Sea of Japan, east of the peninsula, and advised local airlines to divert to “ensure passenger safety on routes to the United States and Japan.”
The United States condemned Pyongyang’s “reckless decision” to fire a missile near South Korean territorial waters, John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said Wednesday.
“Watchful Storm”
The firing comes amid the largest joint maneuvers ever conducted by South Korea and the United States, dubbed “Vigilante Storm,” involving hundreds of warplanes from both sides.
Pak Jong Chon, a senior North Korean official, said these exercises were aggressive and provocative, according to a report in state media on Wednesday.
Pak said the name of the maneuvers is reminiscent of Operation Desert Storm, the U.S. offensive on Iraq in 1990-1991 in response to the invasion of Kuwait.
“If the United States and South Korea intend to use armed forces against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea without fear, the special means of the DPRK armed forces will deploy their strategic mission without delay,” he said.
“The United States and South Korea will face a terrible situation and pay the most horrible price in history,” he added.
In turn, Russia called on the parties to “calm” and asked them to avoid “taking measures that could lead to an increase in tensions,” while the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, condemned the “aggressive and irresponsible” behavior of North Korea.
According to analyst Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute, these shots are the “most aggressive and threatening armed demonstration against the South since 2010.”
In March of that year, a North Korean submarine torpedoed a South Korean vessel, killing 46 crew members, 16 of whom were performing their mandatory military service. In November of that same year, Pyongyang bombed a South Korean border island and killed two young sailors.
Read: North Korea fires ballistic missile flying over Japan
The isolated communist country, endowed with nuclear capacity, has carried out a record series of weapons tests this year and, according to Seoul and Washington, prepares a new nuclear test, which would be the first since 2017.
For their part, the United States and South Korea intensified their military maneuvers in the area, which is sometimes joined by Japan. The current air exercises were preceded by 12 days of amphibious naval exercises.
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