North Korea fires missiles after US, South Korea military drills

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired a number of ballistic missiles into the ocean Monday, South Korea’s army mentioned, hours after South Korean and U.S. troops kicked off their giant annual mixed drills, which the North views as an invasion rehearsal.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Employees mentioned the missile firings, North Korea’s fifth missile launch occasion this yr, had been detected from the North’s southwestern Hwanghae province. It known as the weapons close-range however didn’t say how far they flew. The army mentioned South Korea bolstered its surveillance posture and is carefully coordinating with the US.

Earlier Monday, the South Korean and U.S. militaries started their annual Freedom Protect command put up train, their first main mixed coaching of President Donald Trump’s second time period. The allies have already been partaking in numerous area coaching workouts in reference to the Freedom Protect coaching.

North Korea’s Overseas Ministry warned Monday that the most recent coaching dangers triggering “bodily battle” on the Korean Peninsula. It known as the drills an “aggressive and confrontational warfare rehearsal” and reiterated chief Kim Jong Un’s said objectives for a “radical development” of his nuclear power to counter what he claims as rising threats posed by the U.S. and its Asian allies.

This yr’s coaching got here after the South Korean and U.S. militaries paused live-fire coaching whereas Seoul investigates how its fighter jets mistakenly bombed a civilian space throughout a warm-up drill final week.

About 30 folks had been injured, two of them significantly, when two South Korean KF-16 fighter jets mistakenly fired eight MK-82 bombs on a civilian space in Pocheon, a city close to the North Korean border, on Thursday. The bombing occurred whereas South Korean and U.S. forces had been partaking in a live-fire drill forward of the Freedom Protect train.

The preliminary evaluation from the South Korean air power was that one of many KF-16 pilots entered the flawed coordinates and did not visually confirm the goal earlier than continuing with the bombing. The second pilot had the right coordinates however centered solely on sustaining flight formation and dropped the bombs on the primary pilot’s directions with out recognizing the goal was flawed, based on the content material of the most recent briefing offered to The Related Press.

Gen. Lee Youngsu, chief of workers of the South Korean air power, bowed and apologized Monday over the accidents and property injury attributable to the bombing, which he mentioned “ought to have by no means occurred and must not ever occur once more.”

Each the South Korean and U.S. militaries have halted all live-fire workouts in South Korea following the error. South Korean army officers say live-fire coaching will resume after they full the investigation of the bombing and type preventative steps.

The South Korean air power earlier suspended the coaching flights of all its planes too however lifted the steps on Monday, besides plane affiliated with the unit the 2 KF-16s belong to.