N Korean ballistic missile lands off South Korea's coast, S Korea launches missiles in protest

N Korean ballistic missile lands off South Korea's coast, S Korea launches missiles in protest

Last Updated Nov - 02 - 2022, 02:24 AM | Source : Reuters

South Korean warplanes fired three air-to-ground missiles into the sea north across the NLL in response, the South's military said.

A North Korean ballistic missile landed less than 60 kilometres off South Korea's coast on Wednesday, the first time an apparent test had landed near the South's waters, prompting South Korea to issue rare air raid warnings and launch missiles in protest.

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The missile landed outside of South Korea's territorial waters, but south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a disputed inter-Korean maritime border in what South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called an "effective act of territorial encroachment."

South Korean warplanes fired three air-to-ground missiles into the sea north across the NLL in response, the South's military said. An official said the weapons used included an AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER, which is a U.S.-made "stand-off" precision attack weapon that can fly for up to 270 kilometres (170 miles) with a 360 kg (800-pound) warhead.

The South's launches came after Yoon's office vowed a "swift and firm response" so North Korea "pays the price for provocation".

The North Korean weapon was one of three short-range ballistic missiles fired from the North Korean coastal area of Wonsan into the sea, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. The JCS later said as many as 10 missiles of various types had been fired from North Korea's east and west coasts.

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The JCS said at least one of the missiles landed 26 kilometres south of the NLL, 57 kilometres from the South Korean city of Sokcho, on the east coast, and 167 kilometres from the island of Ulleung, where air raid warnings were issued.

"We heard the siren at around 8:55 am and all of us in the building went down to the evacuation place in the basement," an Ulleung county official told Reuters. "We stayed there until we came upstairs at around 9:15 after hearing that the projectile fell into the high seas."

A resident on the southern part of the island said they received no warnings.

Nuclear-armed North Korea has tested a record number of missiles this year, and officials in Seoul and Washington say the North has completed technical preparations to conduct a nuclear weapon test for the first time since 2017.

The launches came just hours after Pyongyang demanded that the United States and South Korea stop large-scale military exercises, saying such "military rashness and provocation can be no longer tolerated."

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Despite Yoon's declaring a national week of mourning after more than 150 people were killed in a weekend crowd surge in Seoul, the United States and South Korea began one of their largest combined military air drills on Monday. Dubbed Vigilant Storm, the exercises involve hundreds of warplanes from both sides staging mock attacks 24 hours a day.

South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said that because of the launches, some air routes over the sea between North Korea and Japan would be closed until Thursday morning.

A spokesman for the South Korean military said authorities were analysing the launches to see whether the missiles' flight paths were intentional or whether one had gone off course.

Japan defence minister Yasukazu Hamada said the government believed at least two ballistic missiles had been launched from North Korea, one flying east and another southeast.

The first flew 150 kilometres to a maximum altitude of approximately 150 kilometres, while the second covered a range of 200 kilometres to a maximum altitude of 100 kilometres, he said to reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday morning.

It was the first time a North Korean ballistic missile had landed near South Korean waters, JCS said.

"Our military can never tolerate this kind of North Korea's provocative act, and will strictly and firmly respond under close South Korea-U.S. cooperation," JCS said in a news release.

North Korea's actions threaten the peace and stability of Japan, the wider region, as well as the broader international community, and are utterly unacceptable, Hamada said.

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"North Korea has been repeatedly launching missiles at an unprecedented rate, in new ways that we have not seen before," he said.

Japan has lodged a complaint and protested the actions via diplomatic channels in Beijing, he added.

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