North Korea Fired Missiles after US Aircraft Carrier Set To Arrive in South

SEOUL, March 27, (Reuters), on Monday morning, North Korea has been fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the water off its east coast. As per South Korea’s military, the latest in the series of missiles as a U.S. aircraft carrier is ready to reach South Korea.

According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), the missiles were fired exactly at 7:47 a.m. (2247 GMT on Sunday) from North Hwanghae province and they traveled almost 370 kilometers (230 miles).

The Japanese government said that both weapons seem to have landed outside the exclusive economic zone of Japan.

The launches were “strongly condemned” by South Korea’s military who called for an instant halt by claiming that it was a grave provocation of violating United Nations Security Council resolutions.

In their recent statement, the JCS said, they will keep their eyes on all the upcoming activities of North Korea and will also maintain a strong readiness posture based on the ability to overwhelming respond towards any kind of provocation, and also added that it would continue military drills with the U.S., as per plan.

The Japanese government also bashed North Korea and lodged a” strong protest” with them, insisting that their missile launches are becoming the reason for threatening the safety and peace of the people of Japan, the region, and the rest of the international community.

North Korea’s recent launches came as the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Nimtiz and ships from their accompanying strike group are supposed to dock on Tuesday at a South Korean naval base in the southeastern port city of Busan.

The defense ministry of South Korea said before it came, the carrier was due to stage joint maritime exercises with South Korean soldiers on Monday off the Korean peninsula’s south coast.

The ministry also said the carrier’s planned visit which was known as the first since the USS Ronald Reagan’s visit in September, was arranged as part of struggles to have more U.S. “strategic assets” in that area for halting North Korea.

From the past few weeks, North Korea has been taking military tests they fired various cruise missiles on Wednesday which were intended to practice tactical nuclear attacks, according to Pyongyang.

North Korea revealed on Friday, it tested some of their recent nuclear-capable underwater attack drone, after the leader, Kim Jong Un had already warned that joint military drills by South Korea and the U.S. must be stopped.

Last week, the allies ended their regular springtime exercises by calling Freedom Shield 23, however, another field training is still going on like amphibious landing drills adding a U.S. amphibious assault ship, and the exercises with the U.S. carrier.

Pyongyang is extremely angry with allies’ drills, as he said they have been preparing for an invasion of the North.

According to the South Korea, and United States, their exercises are defensive.

(Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi in Seoul and Mariko Katsumura in Tokyo; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, David Gregorio, and Gerry Doyle)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2023.
Featured Image Via: Sailors conduct flight operations aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) in the South China Sea, January 18, 2023. U.S. Navy Photo