2 South Korea trades missile launches near strained maritime border

Soul – Air raid sirens sounded on a South Korean island after North Korea fired at least 17 missiles on Wednesday, prompting residents there to evacuate to underground shelters. South Korea responded quickly by launching its own missiles in the same border area.

The launch came hours after North Korea threatened to use its nuclear weapons and forced the United States and South Korea to pay “the most terrible price in history.” Ongoing South Korea-US Military Exercises It is considered an invasion rehearsal. The White House has insisted the United States has no hostile intentions toward North Korea and vowed to work with allies to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

The barrage of missile tests by North Korea also put the world’s attention on South Korea after the weekend’s Halloween tragedy, which killed more than 150 people in a crowd surge in Seoul, the country’s biggest disaster in years. It happened sometimes.

South Korea’s military said North Korea fired at least 17 missiles from its east and west coasts Wednesday morning. Approximately 100 shells were fired into the Eastern Sea Buffer Zone created by

The 17 missile launches are a record number of daily weapons tests by North Korea in recent years.

One of the ballistic missiles was on its way to South Korea’s Ulleungdo before eventually landing 167 km (104 mi) northwest of the island. The South Korean military then issued an air raid warning for the island, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. South Korean media released photos of islanders moving to underground shelters.

Hours later on Wednesday, the South Korean military announced it had lifted an air raid warning for the island.

The missile landed 26 km (16 miles) from the rival sea border. It landed in international waters, but far south of the two countries’ borders off South Korea’s east coast. rice field.

“This is highly unprecedented and will never be tolerated,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

In 2010, North Korea shelled a front-line South Korean island off the west coast of the peninsula, killing four people. It’s not a banned ballistic missile.

Later on Wednesday, South Korean fighter jets launched three air-to-surface precision-guided missiles near the eastern sea border in a show of determination to tackle North Korea’s provocations. South Korea’s military said the missile landed in the high seas 26 kilometers (16 miles) north of the sea border, the same distance that the North Korean missile dropped Wednesday.

It said it was ready to win an “overwhelming victory” over North Korea in a potential conflict.

Leif Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said: “North Korea launching missiles in such a way as to sound air raid sirens is a way to intimidate South Koreans into pressuring the government to change its policies. seems to be intended,” he said. “North Korea’s expanding military capabilities and testing are worrisome, but any concessions on alliance cooperation or nuclear approval would exacerbate the situation.”

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff previously identified three of North Korea’s launched weapons as “short-range ballistic missiles” launched from the North Korean east coast town of Wonsan. This includes those that landed near sea boundaries.

North Korea’s short-range weapons are designed to hit key installations, including US military bases in South Korea.

At an emergency meeting with top security officials, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered the authorities to take swift unspecified steps to ensure that North Korea would face the consequences of its provocation. He said he would view the landing of a North Korean missile near the border as a “virtual infringement of (our) territorial waters.”

At an emergency meeting in South Korea, “participants lamented the provocations committed during the period of national mourning, noting that this clearly demonstrates the nature of the North Korean government,” according to the South Korean presidential office.

Earlier on Wednesday, Japan’s Defense Minister Hamada told reporters that at least two ballistic missiles launched by North Korea may have exhibited “irregular” trajectories. This suggests that the missile is North Korea’s highly maneuverable, nuclear-capable KN-23 missile modeled after Russia’s Iskandar missile.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said North Korea’s missile test was “absolutely unacceptable.”

Cheong Seong-Chang, an analyst at South Korea’s private Sejong Institute, said the risk of armed clashes between South Korea off the west or east coast has increased. He said that to prevent tensions from spiraling out of control and the possibility of North Korea using tactical nuclear weapons, South Korea would respond to North Korean provocations in a “proportionate response” rather than “overwhelming response.” said that it is necessary to

Hostility on the Korean peninsula has increased in recent months, with North Korea testing an array of nuclear-capable missiles and adopting legislation authorizing first-strike nuclear weapons in a wide range of situations. Some experts suspect North Korea will be the first to use nuclear weapons in the face of US and South Korean military power.

North Korea’s recent weapons tests intended to warn It has called on Washington and Seoul to hold a series of joint military exercises that it considers rehearsals for the invasion, including this week’s exercise involving about 240 fighter jets.

In a statement released early Wednesday, Park Jong-chun, secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party, who is considered a close friend of leader Kim Jong-un, called the so-called Vigilant Storm Air Force training “offensive and provocative.” called.

“If the United States and South Korea fearlessly seek to use force (against North Korea), the (North Korean) military’s special tools will carry out their strategic missions without delay,” Park said. Said. country’s nuclear weapons.

“The United States and South Korea will face horrific events and will have to pay the most horrific price in history,” he said.

US and South Korean officials have been adamant that their training was defensive in nature and had no intention of attacking North Korea.

“We reject the notion that they serve as provocations of any kind. Calling,” White House National Security Council spokesman Adrian Watson said late Tuesday.

North Korea “continues to be unresponsive. At the same time, it continues to work closely with allies and partners to advance its illegal weapons program and limit the North’s ability to threaten regional stability,” Watson said.

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Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi of Tokyo and Aamer Madhani of Washington, DC contributed to this report.