North Korea launched at least ten missiles early Wednesday morning, one of which landed off the coast of South Korea’s Ulleung Island, triggering an airborne alert in part of the country, the South Korean military said.
The missiles launched by Pyongyang have activated the air raid alert system throughout the South Korean island when one of them has crossed the South Korean maritime border, which has led to the evacuation of thousands of residents to basements, Yonhap news agency reported.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff have detailed that North Korea has fired three short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan (also known as the East Sea), as well as seven other missiles of different types.
«One of the missiles (…) headed towards Ulleung Island near Dokdo before falling into the international sea, prompting local authorities to issue an air raid alert,» it has detailed.
This is the first North Korean ballistic missile launch in an area of international waters near South Korea since the division of the peninsula, a fact that the South Korean Armed Forces have described as «intolerable».
«Our military can never tolerate North Korea’s provocative act and will respond sternly in close cooperation with the U.S.,» the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, according to the agency.
Although the South Korean Armed Forces have not yet determined the specifics of the launch such as the range, altitude and speed of the missiles, it has pointed out that they have been fired while conducting large-scale joint air exercises with the United States.
YOON CALLS FOR «QUICK ACTION» AGAINST PYONGYANG South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has condemned North Korea’s launch of the three missiles and called the missile that landed near the South Korean coast a «de facto violation of territory.»
For this reason, the South Korean leader has ordered the army to take «swift action» to make the North pay for «provocations», and has also ordered the military to be «prepared for further provocations», as he said in an emergency meeting of the National Security Council after the launch and reported by Yonhap.
Yoon said North Korea’s missile «provocations» violate the inter-Korean military agreement signed between the two countries on Sept. 19 to prevent military clashes on the border.
This new launch by Pyongyang further escalates tensions in the region, after North Korea has in recent weeks launched several ballistic missiles in tests banned by UN Security Council resolutions, in response to the US-North Korean military maneuvers that it considers an invasion rehearsal.
The United States, as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), have shared their evidence that North Korea is «likely» to conduct a nuclear missile test, its first since 2017.
