PYONGYANG: The missile launches – first reported by the South Korean military – came during the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises in Washington and Seoul, which always infuriate Pyongyang.
The DPRK’s military said in a statement that the missiles were fired late Wednesday as part of a “tactical nuclear strike exercise simulating scorched earth strikes on major command centers and operational airfields” across the border.
“Tactical ballistic missiles” were fired towards the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, just before midnight, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted the Seoul military as saying.
“The exercise aims to send a clear message to the enemy,” the military said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
Pyongyang has done a record number of tests this year.
The North also held its own command-level military exercises on Tuesday in response to US-South Korean drills, during which the country’s leader Kim Jong-un visited a training command post, KCNA said.
“The exercise is aimed at making all commanding officers and staff units of the entire army fully prepare for war,” KCNA said of the exercise.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the military south of the border “maintains a position of full readiness in close cooperation with the United States.”
Their combined air exercise included at least one US B-1B strategic bomber flying over the Korean Peninsula earlier on Wednesday, according to Yonhap – a detail that particularly angered Pyongyang.
The North described the flyover as a “serious threat” and “in line with the scenario of a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the DPRK,” which is North Korea’s official shorthand.
John Kirby, United States, national security spokesman, who was giving a briefing when news of the launch broke, declined to comment to reporters in Washington.
Also on Tuesday, the United States, South Korea and Japan held a trilateral naval missile defence exercise that infuriated North Korea.
Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have stepped up their defence cooperation in recent months in response to growing missile provocations by the North.
Last week, Pyongyang made a second attempt to launch a spy satellite into orbit, though it ended in failure.
Kim has declared North Korea an “irreversible” nuclear power and called for increased weapons production, including tactical nuclear weapons.
He also called for strengthening North Korea’s navy and said the country’s waters were fraught with “the danger of nuclear war”, state media reported.
“Due to the reckless confrontational actions of the US and other hostile forces, the waters off the Korean Peninsula have been reduced to the world’s largest concentration of war hardware,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying.
“Achieving success in the rapid development of naval forces has become a very urgent problem in view of the recent aggressive attempts of the enemy.”
