The drills are designed to showcase the allies’ military capabilities and deter North Korea from taking more “provocative actions”.
South Korea and the United States conducted a series of missile drills in response to North Korea’s first ballistic missile launch over Japan since 2017.
Suspected person medium-range ballistic missile flies about 4,600km (2,850 miles) on Tuesday morning before crashing into the Pacific Ocean, the longest flight for any North Korean test.
In Japan, where residents of northeastern regions heard sirens and were alerted to shelters, the launch was condemned by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida as “barbaric”. South Korea and the United States also condemned the test, and all three countries warned of tough countermeasures.
On Wednesday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said South Korean and US forces fired four surface-to-surface missiles into the sea.
The two sides have previously launched two Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles, hitting drones and “showing their ability to deter further provocative actions by allies”, Yonhap news agency quoted as saying. source from JCS.
The two allies also held a bombing drill off the western coast of the peninsula involving eight fighter jets, hours after North Korea’s test on Tuesday.
Pyongyang has done some record weapons tests this yearincluding banned intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
As of Wednesday morning, North Korean state media had yet to confirm the latest launch, which analysts say could be Hwasong-12. That missile was first tested in 2017 and can carry a nuclear warhead.
Some analysts have suggested that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who is committed to modernizing the military, aims to use his expanding arsenal to pressure Washington to accept his country as a new country. become a nuclear state.
Six countries, including the US, UK and Ireland, have called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council over North Korea’s latest launch. The meeting could be held as early as Wednesday, but reports say Russia and China oppose open discussion of the issue within the 15-member body.
Separately, the South Korean military confirmed that a Hyunmoo-2 missile failed shortly after launch and crashed during a live-fire exercise on Tuesday night, but no one was injured.
The downed rocket caught fire on the air base grounds, but the sound of the explosion and the ensuing fire alarmed and bewildered the seaside town of Gangneung, where some were concerned, the Associated Press reported. fear this is a North Korean attack.
