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Agence France-Presse

North Korea on Friday fired a short-range ballistic missile, conducted an artillery barrage, and flew fighter jets close to the South’s border in another show of force that the US has warned could culminate in a nuclear test.
Pyongyang has dramatically ramped up missile launches and military exercises in recent weeks, which it now describes as “tactical nuclear” drills, as Seoul and Washington say leader Kim Jong-un is close to conducting what would be his country’s seventh nuclear test.
North Korea’s military said in a rare statement its latest actions came in response to a “provocative” South Korean artillery exercise near the border.
The Korean People’s Army “took strong military countermeasures”, said the statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency early on Friday.
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Pyongyang issued “a stern warning to the South Korean military inciting military tension in the frontline area with reckless action,” said the statement.
South Korea’s military said it detected the missile launch from the Sunan area in Pyongyang early on Friday, just hours after the North flew 10 fighter jets close to the inter-Korean border.
The North Korean jets crossed a Seoul-set “reconnaissance line” which triggers an automatic operational response. The South then scrambled military aircraft, including F-35A fighter jets, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
North Korea also fired some 170 artillery shots into waters off its east and west coasts, violating a maritime “buffer zone” agreed in a 2018 deal, JCS said.


Seoul’s National Security Council condemned what it described as a barrage of “hostile actions” overnight, warning in a statement that “such provocations will bring consequences”.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol told reporters that Pyongyang has been “indiscriminately carrying out provocations,” vowing to devise “watertight countermeasures.”
The South also imposed its first unilateral sanctions in five years on Friday, targeting North Korean individuals and institutions.
The United States also condemned the launch of another ballistic missile, saying that it – like the many other recent launches – was in violation of multiple UN sanctions.
“We continue to seek serious and sustained dialogue with the DPRK, but the DPRK refuses to engage,” a State Department spokesperson said, referring to the North by its official name.
North Korea’s recent tests were ‘tactical nuclear’ drills; warning to US
Earlier this week, Kim dismissed the idea of restarting talks over its banned weapons programmes, saying North Korea “felt no necessity to do so”.
The country revised its nuclear laws last month to allow pre-emptive strikes, with Kim declaring North Korea an “irreversible” nuclear power – effectively ending the possibility of negotiations over its arsenal.
Since then, Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have ramped up combined military exercises, including deploying a nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier to the area twice, infuriating Pyongyang, which sees such drills as rehearsals for invasion.
“The North appeared to have taken the South’s recent artillery drill very seriously,” Hong Min of the Korea Institute for National Unification said.
Their latest move – firing an artillery barrage into the maritime buffer zone but not into South Korean waters themselves – looks like an “attempt to test how Seoul will respond”, he said.


There have been growing calls from ruling party parliamentarians for South Korea’s new hawkish administration to scrap the 2018 agreement that created the maritime buffer zone.
“Last night’s drill could’ve been the North’s reaction in protest in North Korean style,” he added.
The overnight barrage follows the test firing of two long-range strategic cruise missiles on Wednesday, which itself came two days after the North said it had wrapped up two weeks of “tactical nuclear” drills.
Kim expressed “great satisfaction” with the recent tests, which he said showed the country’s nuclear combat forces were at “full preparedness for actual war”, state media reported.
South Korea reconsiders nuclearisation to counter North threat
With talks long stalled – and Ukraine-linked gridlock at the United Nations stymying fresh sanctions – Kim has doubled down on developing and testing his banned nuclear arsenal.
Officials in Seoul and Washington have been warning for months that Pyongyang is ready to conduct another nuclear test – which would be the country’s seventh.
Kim has said North Korea will “focus all efforts on the endless and accelerating development of the national nuclear combat armed forces”.
He made acquiring tactical nukes – smaller, lighter weapons designed for battlefield use – a top priority at a key party congress in January 2021.


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North Korea

North Korea fires missile, sends warplanes near border

Pyongyang has been conducting a blitz of missile launches, which it has described as tactical nuclear drills that simulated taking out airports and military facilities across South Korea. Photo: KCNA/KNS via AP

South Korea faces growing calls to reconsider nuclearisation to counter North threat

North Korea’s recent missile tests were a response to US-led joint military exercises in the region, state media said earlier this month. Photo: KCNA via KNS/AFP

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (centre) overseeing a military exercise of tactical nuclear operation units in response to recent joint drills by South Korea and the United States. Photo: KCNA/dpa

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol. Photo: Yonhap via AP

A TV screen shows an image of North Korea’s missile launch during a news programme at the Seoul Railway Station on Monday. Photo: AP

North Korea launches long-range cruise missiles that can carry tactical nuclear weapons

Kim Jong-un oversees a missile launch at an undisclosed location in North Korea on October 10. Photo: KCNA/Reuters


South Korea missile falls during drill, alarming residents who feared attack from the North

A surface-to-surface missile is fired into the sea during US-South Korea live-fire drills. Photo: South Korean Defence Ministry via Reuters

News

Asia

East Asia


Seoul scrambled military aircraft, including F-35A fighters, in response to Pyongyang’s latest military provocations
Friday’s test-fire was the latest in a blitz of missile launches, including one personally overseen by Kim Jong-un earlier in the week



Seoul scrambled military aircraft, including F-35A fighters, in response to Pyongyang’s latest military provocations.


North Korea fires missile, sends warplanes near border

Seoul scrambled military aircraft, including F-35A fighters, in response to Pyongyang’s latest military provocations Friday’s test-fire was the latest in a blitz of missile launches, including one personally overseen by Kim Jong-un earlier in the week

Seoul scrambled military aircraft, including F-35A fighters, in response to Pyongyang’s latest military provocations

Friday’s test-fire was the latest in a blitz of missile launches, including one personally overseen by Kim Jong-un earlier in the week