SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea and the United States fired eight surface-to-surface missiles early Monday off the east coast of South Korea after North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile fire on Sunday, a South Korean defense ministry official said. .
The action is a demonstration of “the ability and readiness to make an accurate strike” against the source of North Korea’s missile launches or command and support centers, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted the South Korean military as saying.
South Korean President Yun Suk-yol, who took office last month, vowed to take a tougher line against the North and agreed with US President Joe Biden at a summit in Seoul in May to improve joint military exercises and their combined deterrent. position.
The South Korean and United States military fired eight surface-to-surface missiles in about 10 minutes, starting at 4:45 a.m. Monday (1945 GMT Sunday) in response to eight missiles fired from the North on Sunday, Yonhap reported.
A South Korean defense official confirmed that eight army tactical missile systems (ATACMS) had been launched.
North Korea’s short-range ballistic missiles fired at sea off its east coast on Sunday were probably his biggest single test, and came a day after South Korea and the United States called off joint military exercises.
A US aircraft carrier is taking part in bilateral exercises between South Korea and the United States for the first time in more than four years.
Japan and the United States also held a joint military exercise Sunday in response to North Korea’s latest missile tests.
North Korea, which has been battling its first known outbreak of COVID-19 for weeks, has criticized previous joint exercises as an example of Washington’s ongoing “hostile policy” toward Pyongyang, despite talks on diplomacy.
North Korea has conducted a series of missile launches this year, from hypersonic weapons to tests of its largest intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) for the first time in nearly five years.
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Yonhap, citing an unidentified source, said the North’s volley on Sunday was fired from four locations, including Sunan in the capital, Pyongyang.
North Korea has continued its recent tendency not to report rocket launches in state media, which some analysts say is intended to show that it is doing so as part of routine military exercises.
Representatives from Washington and Seoul also recently warned that North Korea appears ready to resume nuclear weapons tests for the first time since 2017.
Last month, North Korea launched three missiles, including one believed to be its largest intercontinental missile, the Hwasong-17, after Biden completed a trip to Asia, where he agreed to new measures to deter the nuclear state.
The combined forces of South Korea and the United States have also fired rockets in response to these tests, which the two allies say violate UN Security Council resolutions.
Last month, the United States called for more UN sanctions against North Korea for its ballistic missile launches, but China and Russia vetoed the proposal by publicly splitting the UN Security Council on North Korea for the first time since it began punishing it in 2006, when North Korea conducted its first nuclear test.
(Report by Jack Kim and Choi Su-hyang in Seoul; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Tom Hoag, Neil Fulick and Gary Doyle)
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