North Korea fires two ballistic missiles amid joint South Korea-US drills

North Korea has launched two short-range ballistic missiles as several thousand South Korean and US troops hold joint live-fire exercises in the Korean Peninsula. 

A Japanese Defense Ministry official confirmed at least two ballistic missiles fired by North Korea landed in waters within the exclusive economic zone on Thursday. “Two ballistic missiles fell inside the EEZ,” the official said.

The zone extends up to 200 nautical miles from Japan’s coast, beyond the limits of its territorial waters.

Japanese authorities said one of the missiles landed in the Sea of Japan, about 110 kilometers northwest of Hegura island, part of Ishikawa prefecture, and the other about 250 kilometers away.

Earlier in the day, South Korean and US troops held joint live-fire exercises in the region. A total of 2,500 troops took part in the maneuvers in Pocheon, northeast of Seoul.

South Korean president oversees joint drills

President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea personally watched the live-fire exercises. He said the drills were the largest of their kind ever held with the United States.

Yoon's office said in a statement the initial phase of the drills were designed to manifest a response to North Korea's potential nuclear and missile threats and a full-scale attack.

Pyongyang says such military maneuvers amount to a rehearsal for invasion.

North Korea released a statement on Thursday, with a defense ministry spokesperson saying the exercises were “targeting the DPRK (North Korea) by massively mobilizing various types of offensive weapons and equipment.”

“Our response to this is inevitable,” said the statement, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

It said the drills were “escalating the military tension in the region.”

“Our armed forces will fully counter any form of demonstrative moves and provocation of the enemies.”

The developments came as US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan was in Tokyo for meetings with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts. In a meeting with South Korea’s national security adviser Cho Tae-yong and Japan’s National Security Advisor Takeo Akiba, the three discussed the North’s missile program, according to a readout of the meeting released by Japan.

North Korea, which has been under harsh sanctions by the United States and the United Nations Security Council for years over its nuclear and ballistic-missile programs, launched an unprecedented number of missiles in 2022, including its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile ever.

Over 28,500 American troops are based in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War, which concluded in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, meaning that the two neighbors are still technically at war.

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