SEOUL, March 19 (Yonhap) — North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) towards the East Sea on Sunday, South Korea’s military said, in yet another provocation in apparent protest over an ongoing South Korea-U.S. military exercise.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch from the Tongchang-ri area on the country’s west coast at 11:05 a.m., and the missile flew some 800 kilometers before splashing into the sea.
The Tongchang-ri area is home to the North’s key long-range rocket launch site.
“The intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States are conducting a comprehensive analysis on (the missile’s) specifics,” the JCS said in a text message sent to reporters.
It added the allies will carry out their combined military drills in a “high-intensity” and “thorough” manner, while vowing to maintain a firm readiness posture based on capabilities to respond “overwhelmingly” to any North Korean provocations.
“We strongly condemn the North’s series of ballistic missile launches as an act of significant provocation that harms peace and stability not only on the Korean Peninsula, but also in the international community, and a clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions,” the JCS said, urging the North to immediately stop such launches.
The North has been ratcheting up tensions as the allies are conducting their regular Freedom Shield exercise that it has decried as “preparations of a war of aggression against it.” The 11-day exercise is set to conclude Thursday.
Last week, the North fired a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). It followed the launch of two short-range ballistic missiles on Tuesday and of what it claimed to be two “strategic cruise missiles” from a submarine two days earlier.
The ICBM launch came just hours before President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held a summit in Tokyo and agreed on stronger security cooperation against the North’s growing nuclear and missile threats.
Concerns have persisted that the North could use the allies’ exercise as a pretext to launch major provocations, such as an ICBM launch and even a nuclear test.
Source: Yonhap News Agency