by Josh Smith and Soo-hyang Choi
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea fired at least 23 missiles at sea on Wednesday, one of which fell less than 60 kilometers from the South Korean coast, prompting South Korea to sound alarm sirens. air alert and in turn to fire missiles in protest.
The North Korean missile fell outside South Korean territorial waters, but south of the Northern Limit Line (LLN), a disputed maritime border between the two Koreas. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol denounced “an act of territorial invasion”.
This is the first time a North Korean ballistic missile has landed so close to South Korean waters. Never had the North fired so many missiles in a single day.
South Korean fighter jets fired three air-to-surface missiles into the sea north of the LLN in response, the South Korean military said.
An official said that American-made AGM-84H / K SLAM-ER precision missiles, capable of carrying a load of 360 kilos at a distance of 270 kilometers, had been used in particular.
The South Korean return fire came shortly after a warning from the presidential services announcing a “swift and firm response” so that North Korea “pays the price for its provocation”.
The North Korean firings came after Pyongyang called for a halt to joint military maneuvers between South Korea and the United States, described as a provocation.
Despite the week of national mourning declared in South Korea after the deadly stampede in Seoul this weekend, which left 156 dead, Washington and Seoul on Monday began large-scale military exercises dubbed “Vigilant Storm” and involving hundreds of fighter planes.
The North Korean missile that crossed the Northern Limit Line was part of a group of three short-range ballistic missiles fired at sea from the Wonsan coastal area, the South Korean military said. In total, North Korea fired 23 missiles of several types from its east and west coasts, he added later.
At least one of them landed 26 km south of LLN, 57 km from the South Korean city of Sokcho on the east coast, and 167 km from Ulleung Island, where warning sirens sounded.
“We heard the siren around 8:55 a.m. and everyone in the building went down to the evacuation point in the basement,” an Ulleung county official told Reuters.
“We stayed until about 9.15 a.m. before going back up, after learning that the projectile had fallen on the high seas.”
North Korea has also fired more than 100 artillery rounds from its east coast into the demilitarized zone that has separated the two Koreas since the 1953 armistice, according to the South Korean military.
The US State Department on Wednesday denounced multiple violations by Pyongyang of UN Security Council resolutions.
North Korea has tested a record number of missiles this year and completed, according to Seoul and Washington, preparations for a new nuclear test, which would be the first since 2017.
(Reporting Soo-hyang Choi, Choonsik Yoo and Josh Smith; French version Jean-Stéphane Brosse, editing by Kate Entringer)