North Korea fires ballistic missiles after U.S. and South start annual joint drills, Seoul says
Seoul, South Korea – South Korean military said that the North Korean military fired several ballistic missiles into the sea hours after South Korea and the U.S. began a large annual merger exercise, a rehearsal of the north.
South Korea’s chief of staff said missile fire, North Korea’s The fifth missile launch this year was found to be from Huangxia province in the north, but no other details were provided, such as how far they flew. It said South Korea strengthened its surveillance posture and coordinated closely with the United States.
Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images
Earlier Monday, South Korean and U.S. forces began their annual joint military exercise, which was planned to last 11 days. Start after practicing Free Shield Command South Korean and US military stops training During a warm-up exercise last week, Seoul investigated how two of its fighters mistakenly bombed civilian areas.
The start of the exercise drew condemnation of nuclear-armed North Korea, which issued a government statement calling the exercise a “dangerous act of provocation” that it increased the risk of military conflict by accident single shots. ”
About 30 people were injured, two of them seriously Two Korean KF-16 fighters mistakenly thought eight MK-82 bombsOn Thursday, a civilian area in Pocheon, a small town near the North Korean border. The bombing took place when South Korea and the U.S. forces conducted live exercises ahead of the larger Free Shield movement.
In a background briefing to domestic journalists on Monday, the South Korean Air Force repeated its preliminary assessment last week that one of the KF-16 pilots entered the wrong coordinates to carry out the bombing site.
The unidentified pilot was unaware of the error during the pre-collective inspection and was eager to meet the scheduled opportunity, failing to visually verify the target before bombing. The second pilot had the correct coordinates but focused only on throwing the bombs with other aircraft along with other pilot instructions, but failed to recognize that they deviated from the right target, according to the briefing provided to the Associated Press.
General Lee Youngsu, chief of staff of South Korea, bowed and apologized on Monday, saying the injury and property damage caused by the incident, saying “this should never happen and it must never happen again.”
After the accident, both South Korean and U.S. troops stopped all on-site exercises in South Korea. South Korean military officials said on-site fire training will resume after ongoing investigations into the bombing and precautions are formulated.
The Free Shield Movement marks the first large-scale joint exercise since President Trump began his second term. This is due to tensions in North Korea over its core ambitions and consistency with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.
Mr. Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un three times during his first term, and he expressed his willingness to engage with Kim Jong-il again to revive diplomacy, which collapsed due to exchanges of U.S. disagreements over the denuclearization steps of the North and North Korea. But Pyongyang has not responded to his overture and continues to make fierce remarks about Washington and Seoul, which Kim described as a rehearsal of the invasion.
In a statement released Monday through state media, the North Korean Foreign Ministry called the action of the Free Shield a “active and confrontational war rehearsal” that could trigger a “physical conflict” on the Korean Peninsula.
The ministry reiterated Kim’s national goal to “completely grow” nuclear power in an effort to oppose his claimed threat posed by the United States and its Asian allies.
