North Korea fires ballistic missiles, South Korea says
“We strongly condemn North Korea’s missile launch as a provocation that seriously threatens peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, adding it shared information on the missiles with US and Japanese authorities.
02:05
War of words erupts over North Korea’s multi-warhead missile test claims
“The South Korean military will maintain its capacity and posture to respond overwhelmingly to any provocation while closely monitoring North Korea’s various activities under a strong South Korea-US joint defence posture.”
Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, with the North ramping up weapons testing while bombarding the South with balloons full of trash.
Pyongyang says those missives are in retaliation for balloons loaded with anti-regime propaganda leaflets sent northwards by activists in the South.
In response to the North’s repeated launches, South Korea has fully suspended a tension-reducing military treaty. It also resumed propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts and live-fire drills near the border.
South Korea also has grown anxious over the North’s warming relations with its isolated neighbour Russia.
North Korea is accused of breaching arms control measures by supplying weapons to Russia to use in its war in Ukraine, and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a summit with leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang in June in a show of unity.
On Sunday, Pyongyang condemned joint military drills by South Korea, Japan and the United States, calling them an “Asian version of Nato” and warning of “fatal consequences”.
The three-day “Freedom Edge” exercises included preparation in ballistic missile and air defences, anti-submarine warfare and defensive cyber training.
Pyongyang has always decried similar combined exercises as rehearsals for an invasion, but Seoul said on Sunday the latest exercises were a continuation of defensive drills held regularly for years.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse