South Korea assembles fighter jets as Kim Jong-un sends fighter jets to border

According to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), North Korean planes flew as close as 7 miles north of a de facto sea border between the two Koreas. Pyongyang’s fighter jets were also detected just over ten miles north of a land border. The incidents took place between late Thursday and early Friday, involving about ten Pyongyang warplanes.

The South Korean military said it was conducting “an emergency flight with its superior air force, including the F-35A” fighter jets, but no collisions were reported.

Seoul also said Pyongyang had fired artillery shells into maritime buffer zones established in 2018 as part of inter-Korean peace efforts.

“The [North] The Korean People’s Army is sending a stern warning to the South Korean military, inciting military tensions in the frontline area with reckless action,” a spokesman for the North Korean military general staff said in a statement. run Central News. Desk.

North Korea says it has tested nuclear missiles targeting South Korea

The official said the “countermeasures” were in response to previous South Korean artillery fire that lasted for some 10 hours. South Korea’s defense ministry said it had conducted artillery drills at a site just south of the border with North Korea, but the drills did not violate a 2018 military agreement.

North Korea says it views the recent military exercises by the United States, South Korea and Japan as a military threat. The allies say the exercises are defensive in nature. Tensions continue to mount as nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington stall. Earlier this week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a cruise missile test and pledged to bolster the regime’s nuclear weapons program to fend off enemies. Kim said his nuclear forces were fully prepared for a “real war,” according to state media.

South Korea also imposed unilateral sanctions on North Korea for the first time in about five years on Friday. The measures target 15 North Korean individuals and 16 organizations involved in the development of nuclear weapons and missiles, the South Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

The short-range ballistic missile launched by North Korea on Friday was fired toward waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan at about 1:49 a.m., according to the South Korean military. The rocket flew about 435 miles and reached an altitude of about 50 miles, the JCS said.