Seoul considers this burst of fire ordered by Pyongyang as “a de facto territorial invasion”
North Korea fired more than ten missiles on Wednesday, including one that fell very close to South Korea, whose president Yoon Suk-yeol denounced it as “a de facto territorial invasion.” This burst of gunfire also led the South Korean authorities to launch an unusual air attack alert on the island of Ulleungdo (east), with the launch of three rockets, and to ask its inhabitants to take refuge in underground bunkers.
According to the South Korean military, one of the projectiles launched by Pyongyang crossed the northern boundary line, the disputed maritime border between the two countries, and landed near the South’s territorial waters. In a statement, the South Korean president assured that this “constitutes a de facto territorial invasion with a missile that crossed the northern limit line for the first time since the division” of the peninsula, after World War II.
The military said the closest missile fell into the sea just 57 kilometers east of mainland South Korea, describing the launch as “highly unusual and intolerable.” In response to these actions, the South Korean military fired three air-to-ground missiles near the point where the controversial North Korean projectile landed.
ten missiles
These missiles landed “near the northern boundary line at a distance corresponding to the area where the North missile struck,” it said in a statement. The South Korean military had initially reported three short-range ballistic missiles, but later said Pyongyang had fired more than 10 missiles of various types.
The South Korean president called a meeting of his National Security Council to discuss the shooting and ordered a “quick and severe response” to these “provocations.” The country’s authorities also canceled air routes over the Sea of Japan, to the east of the peninsula, and recommended that local airlines divert to “guarantee passenger safety on routes to the United States and Japan.”
This latest shot comes amid the largest joint maneuvers ever conducted by South Korea and the United States, dubbed “Storm Watcher,” involving hundreds of warplanes from both sides. Pak Jong Chon, a senior North Korean official, called these exercises aggressive and provocative, according to a report in state media on Wednesday. Pak said the exercise’s name is reminiscent of Operation Desert Storm, the 1990-1991 US offensive in Iraq in response to the invasion of Kuwait.
‘Terrible situation’
“If the United States and South Korea intend to use armed forces against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea without fear, the special means of the DPRK armed forces will deploy their strategic mission without delay,” said Jong Chon. “The United States and South Korea will face a terrible situation and will pay the most horrible price in history,” he added.
According to analyst Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute, these shootings are the “most aggressive and threatening armed demonstration against the South since 2010.” In March of that year, a North Korean submarine torpedoed a South Korean ship, killing 46 crew members, 16 of whom were doing their mandatory military service. In November of that same year, Pyongyang bombed a South Korean border island, killing two young sailors.
The isolated communist country, endowed with nuclear capacity, has carried out a record series of weapons tests this year and, according to Seoul and Washington, is preparing a new nuclear test, which would be the first since 2017. For their part, the United States and South Korea they intensified their military maneuvers in the area, to which Japan sometimes joins. The current air exercises were preceded by 12 days of amphibious naval exercises.
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