<Anchor>



North Korea fired another missile last night (3rd).

South Korea and the United States have decided to extend joint air exercises in response to North Korean armed provocations, which is a reaction against this.



This is Ahn Jung-shik, a reporter specializing in North Korea.



<Reporter>



North Korea fired three more short-range ballistic missiles last night.



The Joint Chiefs of Staff said that North Korea fired three short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea from the area of ​​Goksan, North Hwanghae Province, from about 9:35 to 49 last night.



Japan's Kyodo News reported that the launched missiles flew about 500 km at a maximum altitude of 150 km and fell outside Japan's exclusive economic zone.



The North's launch came shortly after Park Jeong-cheon, vice chairman of the Party Central Military Commission, issued a statement protesting the extension of the South Korea-U.S. joint aerial exercise "Vigilant Storm."



In the discourse, Park Jung-cheon argued that the ROK and the US made a very dangerous and wrong choice, pushing the current situation out of control.



Park also threatened that he would find out that South Korea and the US had made a huge mistake that could not be undone.



Earlier, the South Korean and US military authorities decided to extend the ROK-U.S. joint air exercise Vigilant Storm, which was scheduled until today, until the weekend.



The military authorities said that South Korea and the United States agreed that it was necessary to show the solid combined defense posture of the ROK-U.S. alliance in the context of a security crisis escalating due to North Korean provocations.



Along with the extension of the training period, the deployment of the B-1B, a key strategic bomber of the US military deployed in Guam, is also being coordinated on the Korean Peninsula.



The B1-B is a strategic bomber that North Korea has shown a keen reaction to because it has strong stealth performance, can load up to 60 tons of bombs, and is equipped with air-to-surface missiles with a range of over 1,000 km.



As North Korea strongly opposes the extension of the South Korea-US exercise, additional provocations are expected.