SEOUL —
North Korea fired more than 20
missiles Wednesday, including one that landed close to South Korea’s waters in
what President Yoon Suk-yeol said was “effectively a territorial invasion”.
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It also fired an artillery barrage into a maritime
“buffer zone” that experts said was part of an “aggressive and threatening”
response by Pyongyang to large-scale joint air drills the US and South Korea
are conducting.
One short-range ballistic missile crossed the
Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border, prompting a rare warning for
residents on the island of Ulleungdo to seek shelter in bunkers.
Seoul’s military said it was the “first time since
the peninsula was divided” at the end of Korean War hostilities in 1953 that a
North Korean missile had landed so close to the South’s territorial waters.
“President Yoon pointed out today that North Korea’s
provocation is an effective territorial invasion by a missile,” his office said
in a statement.
One of the missiles landed in waters just 57km east
of the mainland, the military said, calling the incident “very rare and
intolerable”.
Pyongyang fired a total of 23 missiles including
seven short-range ballistic missiles and six ground-to-air ones, Seoul’s
military said.
North Korea also conducted an artillery barrage,
firing into a maritime “buffer-zone” set up in 2018 in a bid to reduce tensions
between the two countries during an ill-fated bout of diplomacy.
The huge volley of launches were “provocations
against South Korea”, said Go Myong-hyun, a researcher at the
Asan Institute for Policy Studies.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they lead up to a
nuclear test,” he added.
South Korea, for its part, said it had fired three
air-to-ground missiles into the sea towards the north of the two countries’
maritime boundary.
President Yoon called a meeting of the National
Security Council, ordering “swift and stern measures so that North Korea’s
provocations pay a clear price”.
South Korea closed some air routes over the East
Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, advising local airlines to detour to
“ensure passenger safety in the routes to the US and Japan”.
White House national security spokesman
John Kirby slammed North Korea as “reckless” for carrying out the launches.
“We ... condemn these missile launches and the
DPRK’s ((Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) reckless decision to fire a
missile below the de facto maritime boundary with the Republic of Korea,” Kirby
said.
European Council President
Charles Michel said he
was “outraged” by Pyongyang’s “aggressive and irresponsible behavior” and
Russia called for calm.
‘Vigilant Storm’
Pyongyang’s day of missile
launches came as Seoul and Washington staged their largest-ever joint air
drills, dubbed “Vigilant Storm”, which involved hundreds of warplanes from both
sides.
Pak Jong Chon, a high-ranking North Korean official,
had earlier called the drills aggressive and provocative, according to a report
in state media Wednesday.
Pak said the name of the exercises harked back to
Operation Desert Storm, the US-led military assault on Iraq in 1990–1991 after
the invasion of Kuwait.
“If the US and South Korea attempt to use armed
forces against the DPRK 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 ... pay the
most horrible price in history.”
‘Dangerous situation’
North Korea’s missile
launches on Wednesday appeared to be “the most aggressive and threatening armed
demonstration against the South since 2010”, Cheong Seong-chang, a researcher
at the Sejong Institute, told AFP.
“It is now a dangerous and unstable situation that
could lead to armed conflict,” he added.
In March 2010, a North Korean submarine torpedoed
the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan, killing 46 sailors, including 16 who
were on mandatory military service.
In November of the same year, the North shelled a
South Korean border island, killing two marines — both of them young
conscripts.
Wednesday’s missile tests follow a recent blitz of
launches, including what the North said were tactical nuclear drills.
Washington and Seoul have repeatedly warned the
launches could culminate in another nuclear test — which would be
Pyongyang’s
seventh.
“Pyongyang seems to have completed its most powerful
deterrent. This is a serious threat,” Park Won-gon, a professor at Ewha
University, told AFP.
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