North Korea shot the least 23 missiles on Wednesday, November 2, including the first ballistic who flew over the sea border with South Koreain his the largest daily bombardment under the leadership Kim Jong-un.
The launches came a day after Pyongyang threatened to take “strong measures” If the United States did not halt military exercises with partners including South Korea, what could be Kim’s attempt to lay the groundwork for its first nuclear test in five years. .
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called the launch a territorial violationand his country responded with gunfire a few hours after the morning bombardment three air-to-surface missiles in international waters on the North Korean side of the sea border known as the Northern Limit Line. South Korea has also closed some air routes to the east of the peninsula for security reasons, the Transport Ministry said.
The North Korean rockets were fired in bursts that included four short-range ballistic missiles at 6:51 a.m., three short-range ballistic missiles at 8:51 a.m., and 10 missiles of various types fired toward the east and west at 9:00:12 a.m. , said the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff. confirmed that six additional surface-to-air missiles were fired later in the day and that Pyongyang was also shooting around 100 artillery shells in the naval buffer zone off the east coast.
One of the missiles fired around 8:51 a.m. fell into international waters about 26 kilometers away. south of the sea border known as the Northern Limit Line, he said.
“Unprecedented” provocation
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin discussed the launches and condemned which they saw as a military provocation”unprecedented“, announced the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Seoul.
The missiles triggered the first alert for an air strike on the South Korean island of Ulleung, about 100 kilometers east of the coast. South Korea last issued such a warning in 2016, after a long-range missile launched by North Korea triggered an alert on an island near the western sea border, an interior ministry official said.
South Korea protested the launches, which took place in the period from national mourning for the 156 people who died in a crowd in a Seoul nightlife district over the weekend. The South Korean military has also raised its alert level, Yonhap news agency reported.
South Korea’s and Japan’s defense stocks rose after North Korea launched its latest barrage of short-range ballistic missiles, with Hanwha Aerospace Co. rose by as much as 5.9 percent to the highest level since September 26.
The missile exchange is an escalation of tensions after the two Koreas fired warning shots on October 24 near the nautical limit on the western side of the peninsula. Earlier in the day, Seoul said its neighbor’s merchant ship crossed the sea border. The exchange coincided with the start of joint US and South Korean naval exercises involving warships such as guided-missile destroyers.