North Korea said on Monday that the latest missile launches were simulated attacks against South Korea and the United States, as the two countries are conducting a “dangerous war exercise”, while South Korea said it recovered parts of a missile near the North Korean coast.
Last week, North Korea tested several missiles at sea, including hundreds of artillery shells and a possible failed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), as South Korea and the United States conducted six-day air exercises that ended on Saturday.
The North Korean military said the “Awake Storm” exercises were “a clear provocation aimed at deliberately escalating tensions” and a “dangerous combat exercise of an extremely offensive nature”.
The North Korean Army said it carried out activities simulating attacks on a major South Korean city, along with airbases and aircraft, to “crush the enemy’s persistent war hysteria”.
The series of missile launches was the largest ever recorded in a single day, and came amid a record year of missile tests by the nuclear-armed North Korea.
South Korean and US officials also said that Pyongyang is making technical preparations to test a nuclear device for the first time since 2017.
Senior diplomats from the United States, Japan and South Korea spoke by phone on Sunday, denouncing the recent tests, including the “reckless” launch of a missile that crashed off the coast of South Korea last week, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of State. of the state.
A South Korean ship recovered the wreckage believed to be part of a North Korean short-range ballistic missile (SRBM), an official from the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Monday. It’s the first time a North Korean ballistic missile has landed near South Korean waters.
source: Noticias
