Politics

US, South Korea fire 8 missiles in response to North Korean launches

Seoul, June 6 (EFE).- The United States and South Korea fired eight ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan on Monday in response to the missile launches that North Korea carried out the previous day.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the allies launched surface-to-surface missiles from the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) at 4.45 am local time for a period of 10 minutes, according to Yonhap news agency.

“The South Korea-US combined firing of the ground-to-ground missiles demonstrated the capability and posture to launch immediate precision strikes on the origins of provocations and their command and support forces,” the JCS said in a press release.

The South Korean military “strongly condemns the North’s series of ballistic missile provocations and seriously urges it to immediately stop acts that raise military tensions on the peninsula and add to security concerns,” it added.

Seoul’s new government under conservative president Yoon Suk-yeol advocates for hardening its stance against its neighbor after a more conciliatory stage with his predecessor, and has said that it will respond accordingly to North Korean actions of this kind.

This coordinated action by Washington and Seoul comes a day after Pyongyang fired eight short-range ballistic missiles from various locations across its territory, in an apparent show of muscle following allied naval maneuvers near the Korean Peninsula.

During those exercises, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was deployed, which had not happened since the end of 2017.

North Korea has carried out a record 18 missile launches so far this year.

On May 25, the Kim Jong-un-led regime fired two short-range projectiles and an apparent intercontinental ballistic missile – its first in more than four years.

On that occasion, South Korea and the US also responded with a combined launch similar to Monday’s, also their first since 2017.

Pyongyang, which used to publicize this type of protest launch in its state media, has not commented for the moment on his most recent test. EFE

asb-mra/tw

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