North Korea launches 23 missiles, and the "south" condemns the "land invasion" and responds
Koreans watching in Seoul North Korea's launch of ballistic missiles.
EPA
North Korea fired at least 23 missiles yesterday, one of which landed near South Korean territorial waters, prompting a response from Seoul, as President Yoon Seok-yeol denounced a "de facto land invasion".
In detail, a short-range ballistic missile, attributed to North Korea, crossed the northern border line, which forms the maritime border between the two countries, which raised an alert of an air strike, and asked the residents of the South Korean island of Ulleungdo to go to underground shelters.
The South Korean military reported that it was "the first time since the division of the Korean peninsula", with the Korean War interrupted in 1953, in which a North Korean missile fell so close to the territorial waters of South Korea.
Yun stressed that "the North Korean provocation constitutes a de facto land invasion of a missile that crossed the Northern Border Line for the first time since the division," according to a statement by the presidency.
The missile, closest to the South Korean border, fell in waters located 57 kilometers east of the South Korean mainland, according to the Seoul military, which confirmed that what happened was "very rare and unacceptable."
And the South Korean military announced that Pyongyang fired seven short-range ballistic missiles, and 16 other missiles, six of them surface-to-air missiles.
It also launched a barrage of artillery shells towards a "buffer zone" in the sea that was established in 2018 in an effort to reduce tension between the two countries, during a period of diplomatic movement that did not come to fruition.
"North Korea fired about 100 artillery shells from Koseong in Mangon into the buffer zone north of the Northern Border Line," the South's military said, referring to the inter-Korean maritime border.
In turn, South Korea announced that it had launched three surface-to-air missiles into the sea north of the maritime border between the two countries.
President Yun called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council over the launch, which analysts have deemed "the most hostile and threatening" in several years.
The South Korean president also ordered "quick and firm measures so that North Korean provocations would pay a heavy price."
Japan also confirmed North Korean missile launches, and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters that he wanted "a meeting on national security as soon as possible."
South Korea closed some air lanes over the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, and directed domestic airlines to change routes "to ensure the safety of passengers heading to the United States and Japan."
The North Korean missile launch comes as Seoul and Washington are organizing the largest joint air military exercise in their history called "Awakening Storm", in which hundreds of warplanes from the two armies are participating.
Marshal Pak Jong Chun, secretary of the ruling Workers' Party of North Korea, described the exercises as "provocative and hostile," according to a report published yesterday by the North Korean official press.
He added that these maneuvers are reminiscent of "Desert Storm", the name given to the military operations of the US-led coalition against Iraq in 1990 and 1991 after its invasion of Kuwait.
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