A North Korean missile has landed near South Korean waters for the first time, prompting Seoul to respond with its own air-to-ground missiles after residents on an eastern island were asked to evacuate. The North Korean missile, one of at least 23 fired throughout Wednesday, was detected by South Korea’s military and the Japanese coast guard. It landed less than 60km (37 miles) off the South’s coast. Consequently after few hours later South Korea said its warplanes fired three air-to-ground missiles into the sea towards the north of the two countries’ maritime border. Some air routes along the country’s east coast had also been closed to commercial aircraft, the transport ministry said. According to South Korean military, air raid siren sounded on a remote island controlled by Seoul of the peninsula’s eastern coast.
The latest launch came as Pyongyang called for an end to current South Korean and US Air Force drills, speaking at the news conference the Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada, condemned the launch.
“These actions by North Korea threatens the peace and stability of Japan, the region as well as the international community and are utterly unacceptable,” Hamada said.
“They violate United Nation’s Security Council resolution which strongly condemn North Korea and have made a solemn protest against these actions by diplomatic channels in Beijing.”
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) noted that the launch was “very unusual and absolutely unacceptable”, the JCS said, adding that it would respond “decisively”.
President Yoon Suk-yeol convened a meeting of the National Security Council and condemned the “unprecedented” launches, which happened amid a period of national mourning for the 156 people killed in the Itaewon crowd crush at the weekend.
Sending a missile south of the NLL was “tantamount to territorial intrusion”, he was quoted as saying in a statement following the NSC meeting with his office promising a “swift and firm response” so North Korea “pays the price for provocation”.
“Seoul is justified in staging a proportional response to Pyongyang’s provocation across the de facto maritime border,” Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, told Al Jazeera. “But eye-for-an-eye demonstrations of force are unlikely to deter North Korean missile tests and could lead to unintended escalation.”
Suk-yeol suggested the South would be better off imposing costs on Pyongyang by multilaterally tightening sanctions, and pressuring China to lean on North Korea by expanding US-South Korea-Japan security cooperation.
