North flies warplanes, fires artillery shots, launches short-range ballistic missile

North Korea

Published: 14 Oct. 2022, 12:21 Updated: 14 Oct. 2022, 15:54

North flies warplanes, fires artillery shots, launches short-range ballistic missile

President Yoon Suk-yeol condemns North Korea’s violation of a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement on Friday as he speaks to local reporters on his way to work in Yongsan District, central Seoul. [YONHAP]

North Korea flew some 10 warplanes close to the inter-Korean border, fired 170 artillery shots into maritime buffer zones off its coasts in violation of a South-North military agreement and launched yet another short-range ballistic missile — all in less than five hours.

The provocations lasted from about 10:30 p.m. on Thursday to 3:07 a.m. on Friday, the South Korean military said.

Seoul denounced the North Korean threats on multiple fronts, including through a letter faxed to the North through a military communication channel in the Yellow Sea, Seoul’s Ministry of National Defense said.

On his way to work on Friday, President Yoon Suk-yeol denounced Pyongyang’s violation of the inter-Korean military agreement and said he was looking into each provocation.

According to the South Korean military, the North Korean aircraft came as close to flying about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) north of the Military Demarcation Line and about 12 kilometers north of the Northern Limit Line, the de-facto inter-Korean maritime border in the Yellow Sea, between 10:30 p.m. on Thursday and 12:20 a.m. on Friday.

In response, the South Korean military said it dispatched its own fighter jets, including the F-35A, to carry out a “proportional response maneuver corresponding to the flight of North Korean military aircraft.”

The next set of provocations began at about 1:20 a.m. on Friday and lasted for about five minutes when the North fired some 130 artillery shots into the Yellow Sea from its southwestern Hwanghae Province. The North fired some 40 additional shots into the East Sea off its southeastern Kangwon Province from about 2:57 a.m. to 3:07 a.m.

Although none of the shots landed in South Korean seas, they fell within the maritime buffer zones that the South and North Korean militaries agreed to on Sept. 19, 2018 on the sidelines of an inter-Korean summit between then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

In between the time Pyongyang fired into both seas, it launched a short-range ballistic missile.

The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the latest North Korean missile was launched from the Sunan area of Pyongyang at 1:49 a.m., flying nearly 700 kilometers after peaking at an altitude of 50 kilometers with a top speed of Mach 6 before splashing into the East Sea off its eastern coast.

North Korea has been conducting a flurry of missile tests in recent weeks, including of an intermediate-range ballistic missile that overflew Japan.

On Thursday, the North’s state media reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un personally watched the test-firing of long-range strategic cruise missiles by tactical nuclear operations units.

Pyongyang’s most recent provocations came shortly before Seoul blacklisted 15 North Korean individuals and 16 institutions involved in nuclear and missile development, marking the South’s first unilateral sanctions against the regime in five years.

It was the first time the Yoon administration imposed unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang since taking office in May.

The last such measures were announced in December 2017 during the former Moon administration following the North’s sixth nuclear test.

Virtually all exchanges between the two Koreas are already prohibited under South Korea’s so-called May 24 measures adopted in 2010 during the conservative Lee Myung-bak administration, making Seoul’s latest unilateral sanctions mostly symbolic in nature.

In a statement Friday, South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was imposing the sanctions to “strongly condemn” the North’s recent series of missile provocations of unprecedented frequency and “introduction of tactical nukes against us.”

All 15 North Koreans added to Seoul’s unilateral sanctions list against the regime are part of the Second Academy of Natural Sciences Research Institute and a trading company named Ryonbong, both of which fall under UN Security Council sanctions, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said.

The blacklisted institutions included various other trading and shipping companies blamed for assisting the North’s research and shipping of goods for weapons of mass destruction.

BY LEE SUNG-EUN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]