N Korea fires ballistic missiles into sea as S Korea, US pause joint military drills

SEOUL(South Korea): North Korea has fired unidentified ballistic missiles, the South Korean military said on Monday according to local media.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the military spotted the ballistic missiles at around 1:50 pm fired from inland in north Korea’s Hwanghae region and the projectiles flew toward the Yellow Sea, Yonhap reported.

The JCS said it has bolstered surveillance and maintained a full readiness posture under close cooperation with the United States.

The development comes as troops of South Korea and the US began their annual combined drills the ‘Freedom Shield’ exercise, which was paused after the accidental bombing of a civilian village by fighter jets last week.

Two KF-16 fighter jets “abnormally” dropped eight MK-82 bombs outside a training range in Pocheon, some 40 kilometers north of Seoul, during live-fire drills on Thursday, injuring 29, including 15 civilians.

South Korea’s top Air Force commander issued a public apology today over the incident, the country’s state news agency Yonhap reported.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Lee Young-su was cited as saying in a press briefing that the “accident that should never have happened, and one that should not recur.”

An interim probe result released today Force reaffirmed pilot error as the cause of the bombing, saying the pilot of the first aircraft missed at least three opportunities to prevent the accident after wrongly entering the target coordinates.

Meanwhile, Pyongyong has denounced the joint exercises of the allies’ Washington and Seoul as a rehearsal for an invasion against it. North Korea released back-to-back statements denouncing the latest joint drills, threatening that Seoul and Washington will pay a “horrible” price for their “dangerous provocative act,” South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

North Korea had in February this year launched strategic cruise missiles in waters off its west coast to demonstrate the potential of its nuclear deterrence, local media reported adding that its leader Kim Jong-un has called for thorough war preparedness with the country’s nuclear forces and readiness for their use.

The United Nations Security Council has adopted multiple resolutions sanctioning North Korea over its illegal missile and nuclear programs since 2006. (ANI)