North Korea fired several ballistic missiles into the sea on Monday (March 10, 2025), South Korea’s military mentioned, hours after South Korean and U.S. troops kicked off their massive annual mixed drills, which the North views as an invasion rehearsal.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff mentioned the missile firings, North Korea’s fifth missile launch occasion this yr, had been detected from the North’s Hwanghae province however gave no additional particulars comparable to how far they flew.
Earlier Monday, the South Korean and U.S. militaries began their annual joint military workouts, that are scheduled to final 11 days. The Freedom Shield command put up train began after the South Korean and U.S. militaries paused live-fire coaching whereas Seoul investigates how two of its fighter jets mistakenly bombed a civilian space throughout a warm-up drill final week.
The drills’ begin drew the condemnation of nuclear-armed North Korea, which issued a authorities assertion calling the workouts a “dangerous provocative act” that will increase the dangers of military battle.
About 30 individuals had been injured, two of them severely, when two South Korean KF-16 fighter jets mistakenly fired eight MK-82 bombs on a civilian space in Pocheon, a city close to the North Korean border, on Thursday. The bombing occurred whereas South Korean and U.S. forces had been partaking in a live-fire drill forward of the bigger Freedom Shield train.
In a background briefing to home reporters on Monday, the South Korean air drive repeated its preliminary evaluation final week that one of many KF-16 pilots had entered the flawed coordinates for a bombing website.
The unidentified pilot didn’t acknowledge the error throughout a pre-takeoff test and, speeding to satisfy scheduled timing, did not visually confirm the goal earlier than continuing with the bombing. The second pilot had the right coordinates however centered solely on sustaining formation with the opposite plane and dropped the bombs following the primary pilot’s directions, failing to acknowledge they deviated from the correct goal, based on the content material of the briefing offered to The Associated Press.
Gen. Lee Youngsu, chief of employees of the South Korean air drive, bowed and apologized Monday over the accidents and property injury brought on by the incident, which he mentioned “should have never happened and must never happen again.”
Both the South Korean and U.S. militaries have halted all live-fire workouts in South Korea following the mishap. South Korean military officers say live-fire coaching will resume after they full the continued investigation on the bombing and formulate preventative steps.
The Freedom Shield train marks the primary large-scale joint train since U.S. President Donald Trump began his second time period. It comes amid rising tensions with North Korea over its nuclear ambitions and its alignment with Russia in President Vladimir Putin’s struggle on Ukraine.
Mr. Trump, who met North Korean chief Kim Jong Un thrice throughout his first time period, has expressed his willingness to achieve out to Kim once more to revive diplomacy, which collapsed as a consequence of disagreements over exchanging U.S.-led sanctions towards the North and the North’s denuclearization steps. But Pyongyang has but to reply to his overture and has continued its fiery rhetoric towards Washington and Seoul over their joint military workouts, which Kim portrays as rehearsals for invasion.
In an announcement issued by state media Monday, the North Korean Foreign Ministry known as the Freedom Shield train an “aggressive and confrontational war rehearsal” that dangers triggering “physical conflict” on the Korean Peninsula.
The Ministry reiterated Mr. Kim’s state targets for a “radical growth” of his nuclear drive to counter what he claims as rising threats posed by the U.S. and its Asian allies.
Published – March 10, 2025 11:52 am IST
