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South Korea has scrambled about 80 military aircraft, including advanced F-35 fighter jets, on Friday after tracking about 180 flights North Korean warplanes flying in North Korean territory in what appeared to be a defiant show of strength.
North Korea's mobilisation of warplanes came after it test-fired around 30 ballistic missiles over the previous two days, including an intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday that triggered evacuation warnings in Japan, in an angry response to ongoing joint exercises by hundreds of US and South Korea military planes.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North Korean warplanes were detected in various areas inland and along the country’s eastern and western coasts, but they did not come particularly close to the inter-Korean border.
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The South Korean military spotted about 180 flight trails from 1pm to 5pm, but it wasn't immediately clear how many North Korean planes were involved and whether some may have flown more than once.
None of those planes breached the South Korean military’s virtual “tactical action” line, which is designated 20 to 50 kilometres north of the Koreas’ land and sea boundaries for monitoring purposes to give the South enough time to respond to provocations or attacks.
South Korea still scrambled about 80 of its own warplanes, including an unspecified number of F-35 fighters. There weren't any immediate reports of clashes.
US and South Korean forces were also separately conducting their “Vigilant Storm” combined aerial exercise, which involved some 240 warplanes, including F35s.
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The training had been scheduled through Friday, but the allies extended it to Saturday in response to North Korea’s intensified testing activity this week.
The extension of the drills was announced on Thursday after the North test-fired an ICBM, which triggered evacuation alerts in northern Japan, and followed the event with two short-range ballistic missile launches into the sea.
A senior North Korean military official issued a statement threatening retaliation over the extension of the drills, and the North about an hour later fired three additional missiles into the sea.
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On Wednesday, North Korea fired more than 20 missiles, the most it has launched in a single day.
After already setting an annual record with dozens of ballistic missile launches in 2022, North Korea has further dialled up its testing activity since late September, including what it described as simulated nuclear attacks on South Korean and US targets.
It has said its tests are meant as a warning against the United States’ military drills with allies South Korea and Japan which it portrays as rehearsals for a potential invasion.
Experts say North Korea is attempting to force the United States to accept it as a nuclear power and seeks to negotiate economic and security concessions from a position of strength.
North Korea has punctuated its threats with an escalatory nuclear doctrine that authorises preemptive nuclear attacks in a variety of loosely defined crisis situations.
Following a meeting Thursday at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup released a joint statement saying they "strongly condemned" North Korea's recent weapons demonstrations.
Both defense leaders stressed that any use of nuclear weapons, including lower-yield tactical nuclear devices, against Seoul or other regional allies such as Japan, would "result in the end of the Kim Jong Un regime by an overwhelming and decisive response of the alliance," Lee said at a joint news conference with Austin.
Source: 9News
