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| Two U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers, upper left, fly in formation with Republic of Korea Air Force F-35A fighter jets and U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jets over South Korean skies during a joint air drill in South Korea, Sunday. Courtesy of defense ministry |
By Jung Min-ho
North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile on Sunday in yet another provocation amid South Korea's combined military exercise with the United States.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that it detected the missile launched from Dongchang-ri, North Korea's key long-range rocket shooting site in its northwestern coast, at 11:05 a.m. It flew about 800 kilometers across land before falling into the waters off its east coast.
It was North Korea's fourth weapons test apparently targeting the Freedom Shield exercise that began last Monday. On Thursday, only several hours before President Yoon Suk Yeol's summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, the North fired a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile into the East Sea between the two countries ― after launching two short-range ballistic missiles on March 14 and two cruise missiles from a submarine on March 12.
The JCS condemned the latest provocation as a "clear violation" of a U.N. Security Council resolution, saying their exercise schedule won't be affected. The drills, the biggest of their kind since 2018, will continue until Thursday.
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| People watch a TV showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test at a railway station in Seoul, Sunday. AFP-Yonhap |
The Ministry of National Defense said that U.S. B-1B strategic bombers joined Sunday's joint exercises with South Korea's F-35A stealth fighter jets and U.S. F-16 fighters in skies over the Korean Peninsula.
"The South Korea-U.S. alliance is maintaining the highest level of combined defense posture against North Korea's consistent threats to regional stability and will achieve 'peace through strength' based on the allies' robust military capabilities and posture, while enhancing trust in the U.S. extended deterrence," the ministry said in a statement.
Japanese Vice Defense Minister Toshiro Ino reportedly said the missile appeared to show an irregular trajectory, which could be a sign of North Korea's highly maneuverable, nuclear-capable KN-23 missile.
Following the launch, the top nuclear envoys of South Korea, the United States and Japan ― Kim Gunn, Sung Kim and Takehiro Funakoshi ― held phone talks in which they agreed to stay united against Pyongyang's provocations at the upcoming U.N. Security Council's meeting in New York.
North Korea has accused Seoul and Washington of carrying out the military exercises in preparation for an invasion, vowing to take "overwhelming" action. Many worry that the North may ratchet up tensions further with more weapons tests, including possibly its first nuclear test since 2017.
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