SEOUL: North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile into the sea off its east coast on Friday, South Korea’s military said, the latest in a series of launches by the nuclear-armed country amid heightened tensions.
South Korea also scrambled fighter jets when a group of about 10 North Korean military aircraft flew close to their heavily fortified border, and North Korea fired some 170 rounds of artillery into “sea buffer zones” off its east and west coasts, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
South Korea’s National Security Council (NSC) condemned the North for escalating tensions, calling its moves a violation of a 2018 bilateral military pact that bans “hostile acts” in the border area.
Seoul imposed its first unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang in nearly five years, blacklisting 15 North Korean individuals and 16 institutions involved in missile development.
The JCS issued a warning to North Korea, urging it to stop provocations and escalating tension.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol told reporters that Pyongyang has been “indiscriminately carrying out provocations,” vowing to devise “watertight countermeasures.”
Yoon’s spokesman said that his government respects inter-Korean agreements, and that scrapping the 2018 military pact hinges on Pyongyang’s behaviour.
North Korea’s military issued a statement via state media KCNA on early Friday that it took “strong military countermeasures,” over South Korea’s artillery fire on Thursday.
South Korea’s NSC said the firing was a “regular, legitimate” exercise. The incidents came after KCNA said leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch of two long-range strategic cruise missiles on Wednesday to confirm the reliability of nuclear-capable weapons deployed to military units. –Agencies
