North Korea fired more than 10 missiles Wednesday, including one that landed close to South Korea’s waters that President Yoon Suk-yeol said was ‘effectively a territorial invasion’.
An air raid warning was issued for Ulleungdo that was flashed on national television and told residents to “evacuate to the nearest underground shelter”.
One short range ballistic missile crossed the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border between the two countries, prompting a rare warning for residents on the island of Ulleungdo to seek shelter in bunkers.
The military said it was the “first time since the peninsula was divided” at the end of the of Korean War hostilities in 1953 that a North Korean missile had landed so close to the South’s territorial waters.
“(Yoon) pointed out today that North Korea’s provocation is an effective territorial invasion by a missile that crossed the Northern Limit Line for the first time since the division,” his office said in a statement.
The missile that was closest to South Korea landed in waters just 57 kilometers (35 miles) east of the South Korean mainland, the military said.
The military released a statement describing the missile launch near South Korean territorial waters as “very rare and intolerable”.
“Our military vowed to respond firmly to this (provocation),” it added.
The South Korean military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff initially said it detected the launch of three short range ballistic missiles.
But it later announced North Korea had fired “at least 10 missiles of various types today towards the east and west”.
Yoon Suk-yeol called a meeting of the National Security Council over the launches, ordering “swift and stern measures so that North Korea’s provocations pay a clear price.”
Japan also confirmed North Korean missile launches, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida telling reporters he planned to call a “national security meeting as soon as possible.”
Pyongyang’s latest launch comes as Seoul and Washington stage their largest-ever joint air drills, dubbed “Vigilant Storm”, which involve hundreds of warplanes from both sides.
Pak Jong Chon, a high-ranking official in North Korea, said the drills were aggressive and provocative, according to a report in state media Wednesday.
Pak said the name of the exercises harks back to Operation Desert Storm, the US-led military assault on Iraq in 1990-1991 after it invaded Kuwait.
“If the US and South Korea attempt to use armed forces against the (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) without any fear, the special means of the DPRK’s armed forces will carry out their strategic mission without delay,” he said.
“The US and South Korea will have to face a terrible case and pay the most horrible price in history.”
One of the missiles on Wednesday landed in waters just 57 kilometers (35 miles) east of the South Korean mainland, the military said.
“In protest of the joint US-South Korea drill, Pyongyang seems to have staged the most aggressive and threatening armed demonstration against the South since 2010,” Cheong Seong-chang, a researcher at the Sejong Institute said.
In March 2010, a North Korean submarine torpedoed the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan, killing 46 sailors including 16 who were on their mandatory military service.
In November the same year, the North shelled a South Korean border island, killing two marines — both of them young conscripts.
“It is now a dangerous and unstable situation that could lead to armed conflicts,” he added.
The test follows a recent blitz of launches, including what the North said were tactical nuke drills, that Washington and Seoul have repeatedly warned could culminate in another nuclear test — which would be Pyongyang’s seventh.
The Vigilant Storm air drills were preceded by 12 days of amphibious naval exercises.
“As far as I can remember, North Korea has never made such a provocation when South Korea and the US were holding their joint drills,” Park Won-gon, a professor at Ewha University, said.
“Pyongyang seems to have completed its most powerful deterrent. This is a serious threat. The North also seems confident in their nuclear capabilities.”
