Seoul considers this blaze of fire ordered by Pyongyang to be “a de facto territorial invasion”
North Korea fired more than 10 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 prompted South Korean authorities to issue an unusual air raid alert on Ulleungdo Island (East), launching three missiles, and ask residents to take refuge in underground bunkers. .
According to the South Korean military, one of the projectiles launched by Pyongyang crossed the northern border line, the disputed sea 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 borderline 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 35 miles east of mainland South Korea, describing the launch as “very unusual and unbearable”. In response to these actions, the South Korean military fired three air-to-surface missiles near the point where the controversial North Korean missile landed.
These missiles landed “near the northern boundary line at a distance equivalent to the area where the northern missile hit,” the statement said. The South Korean military had initially reported three short-range ballistic missiles, but later said Pyongyang had fired more than ten different types of missiles.
The South Korean president convened his National Security Council to discuss the shooting and ordered a “quick and serious response” to these “provocations”. The country’s authorities also canceled air routes over the Sea of Japan, east of the peninsula, and advised local airlines to divert to “ensure the safety of passengers on routes to the United States and Japan.”
This latest shot comes amid the largest joint maneuver ever conducted by South Korea and the United States, dubbed “Storm Watcher,” which involved hundreds of fighters from both sides. Pak Jong Chon, a senior North Korean official, called these exercises aggressive and provocative, according to a state media report on Wednesday. Pak said the name of the exercise is reminiscent of Operation Desert Storm, the 1990-1991 US offensive in Iraq in response to the invasion of Kuwait.
“If the United States and South Korea intend to deploy military forces against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea without fear, the special resources of the North Korean 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 terrible 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 on mandatory military service. In November of the same year, Pyongyang bombed a South Korean border island, killing two young sailors.
The isolated communist country, which has nuclear capabilities, has conducted a record series of weapons tests this year and is preparing a new nuclear test, according to Seoul and Washington, the first since 2017. States and South Korea intensified their military maneuvers in the area, where Japan sometimes participate in. The current air exercises were preceded by 12 days of amphibious naval exercises.
Source: La Verdad
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