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 told to evacuate, Al Jazeera reports.
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.
A 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.
“Our military’s response reaffirms our resolve to sternly respond to any provocations (by North Korea) and shows that we are capable of accurately striking our enemy,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said of the missiles its aircraft fired, according to the Yonhap News Agency.
Later on Wednesday, North Korea fired about 100 artillery shells into an eastern maritime buffer zone the two Koreas created in 2018 to reduce tensions, according to South Korea’s military. That was followed by six more missiles fired toward the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, and the Yellow Sea, Yonhap reported.
