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South Korea and Japan say North Korea fired at least 17 missiles towards its southern neighbour on Wednesday, including one projectile that flew close to South Korea\u2019s Ulleung island before hitting the waters off its east coast.<\/p>\n
The barrage triggered a response from Seoul, which fired off three of its own missiles.<\/p>\n
This is the first time both Korean nations have fired missiles which have landed in each other’s coastal territory, with the South Korean military warning it represented a \u201chighly unprecedented\u201d escalation.<\/p>\n
The launch of 17 missiles is a record number of daily missile tests by North Korea, experts claimed.<\/p>\n
Air raid sirens were activated to warn South Korean residents on Ulleung island to take cover, officials from Seoul\u2019s defence ministry said. Local media reports said the sirens blared for around three minutes, though people were not initially aware of what they were supposed to signify.<\/p>\n
The first barrage included at least three-short range ballistic missiles and seven missiles of other types which were not immediately identified, South Korean officials said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ROK (South Korean) military, at around 8.51am, detected three short-range ballistic missiles that North Korea fired from Kangwon Province\u2019s Wonsan region, and one of these fell in international waters of the East Sea, south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL),\u201d said an official statement.<\/p>\n
The NLL is a line generally recognised as the sea border between the two Koreas, though North Korea has not formally acknowledged this. <\/p>\n
North Korea has not yet commented on the launches, but warned it would take action as the US and South Korea went ahead with joint military exercises. <\/p>\n
South Korea responded to the missiles fired by its neighbour with its own test-launch involving at least three air-to-ground missiles, the military said. <\/p>\n
The \u201cprecision air-to-surface missiles\u201d reportedly fell a similar distance into North Korean waters, north of the NLL, to the North Korean missile that landed near Ulleung. <\/p>\n
South Korea said it deployed a US-made \u201cstand-off\u201d precision attack weapon \u2014 an AGM-84H\/K SLAM-ER \u2014 that can fly for up to 270 km (170 miles) with a 360 kg (800-pound) warhead, in the tests.<\/p>\n
South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol\u2019s office had said it would deliver a \u201cswift and firm response\u201d to ensure the North \u201cpays the price for provocation\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cNorth Korea\u2018s provocation today was an effective act of territorial encroachment by a missile intruding the NLL for the first time since (the two Koreas\u2019) division,\u201d Mr Yoon\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s launch is one of the largest single missile bombardments fired by Pyongyang since 2010.<\/p>\n
It takes the total number of missiles fired by Pyongyang this year to well over 60 \u2013 including nearly 50 ballistic missiles. Most of these were fired in the direction of the East Sea.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the Kim Jong-un led country also fired more than 100 rounds of artillery from its east coast into a military buffer zone established in an agreement with the Seoul, South Korea\u2018s military said.<\/p>\n
The launches were also reported by Japan, but it did not immediately confirm a tally of missiles fired.<\/p>\n
\u201cNorth Korea has launched a suspected ballistic missile. More updates to follow,\u201d Japan\u2019s prime minister\u2019s office said, issuing directions to its units to prepare for contingencies.<\/p>\n
Seoul\u2019s army lieutenant general Kang-Shin-chul said the launches on Wednesday were \u201chighly unprecedented and can never be tolerated\u201d. \u201cOur military declares we will respond firmly to this,\u201d the top military official said.<\/p>\n
As a result of increased tensions in the Korean peninsula, South Korea has shut some air routes over the sea between North Korea and Japan till Thursday morning, its ministry of land, infrastructure and transport said on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur military can never tolerate this kind of North Korea\u2018s provocative act, and will strictly and firmly respond under close South Korea-US cooperation,\u201d JCS said in a news release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emails South Korea and Japan say North Korea fired at least 17 missiles towards its southern neighbour on Wednesday, including one projectile that flew close to South Korea\u2019s Ulleung island […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n