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North Korea has fired four short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, South Korea’s military said, adding to this week’s weapons demonstrations and heightening tensions in the region.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Saturday that the missile flew about 130 kilometers (80 miles) toward the waters west of North Korea.
North Korea fired dozens of missiles into the sea this week, including an intercontinental ballistic missile that triggered an evacuation warning in northern Japan and flew warplanes over its territory.
North Korea described its military action as an appropriate response to joint U.S.-South Korea air drills, calling it a manifestation of U.S. “military confrontation hysteria.”
On Saturday, in the final days of joint exercises, the United States flew two B-1B supersonic bombers over South Korea in a show of force to intimidate North Korea into ramping up testing activities.
The “Vigilance Storm” exercise involving some 240 fighter jets, including the two countries’ advanced F-35 fighter jets, sparked an angry reaction from North Korea.
North Korea’s foreign ministry said North Korea would make “the most severe counterattack” against any attempt by “hostile forces” to violate its sovereignty or security interests.
B-1B flights have been a common display of force in past tensions with North Korea. The planes were last seen in the region in 2017, in another provocative part of North Korea’s weapons demonstrations.
But those flyovers have been halted in recent years as the U.S. and South Korea halted large-scale exercises to support the Trump administration’s diplomatic efforts with North Korea, and because of Covid-19.
The allies have resumed large-scale training this year as North Korea ramped up weapons testing to a record pace, using the UN Security Council’s deepening divisions over Russia’s war with Ukraine as a window to accelerate weapons development.
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