North Korea Fires Missiles Toward South
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
SEOUL (Worthy News) – North Korea has fired at least 23 missiles toward South Korea, the most ever in a single day, prompting the South to launch its rockets while issuing rare air raid warnings.
Wednesday’s missiles launched by autocratically ruled North Korea included one landing less than 60 kilometers (40 miles) from South Korea’s coast, authorities said.
It was the first ballistic missile to land near the South’s waters since the peninsula was divided in 1945, which South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called “territorial encroachment” and the U.S. condemned as “reckless.”
South Korea retaliated by firing its test missiles as some residents rushed to underground bomb shelters.
The military escalation followed warnings by officials in South Korea and the U.S. that North Korea completed technical preparations to test a nuclear weapon for the first time since 2017.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said one of the nearly two dozen missiles launched by North Korea on Wednesday landed less than 60 kilometers (40 miles) from the South Korean city of Sokcho on the nation’s east coast.
100 ROUNDS
The North also fired more than 100 rounds of artillery from its east coast into a military buffer zone established in a military agreement with the South, South Korea’s military said.
The South’s Joint Chiefs said North Korea’s military posturing violated a 2018 agreement between the two countries. Both nations remain technically at war despite signing a ceasefire deal in 1953
North Korea already test-fired a record number of missiles this year. The country said these launches were in response to military exercises by the United States and South Korea.
On Monday, Washington and Seoul began one of their largest combined military air drills in the region dubbed “Vigilant Storm.” Hundreds of warplanes from both countries have been staging mock attacks 24 hours per day.
The missile strikes also came amid concerns about reported human rights violations under North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, who targets minority Christians and others deemed dangerous to his power base.
At least 50,000 to 70,000 devoted Christians are jailed in North Korea’s notorious system of prisons and labor camps due to faith, according to Christians familiar with their plight.