North Korea missile launch prompts US, South Korea ‘precision bombing drill’

South Korean and US fighter jets carried out precision bombing drills Tuesday, Seoul’s military said, in response to North Korea firing an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile over Japan.

“With the participation of four South Korean Air Force F-15Ks and four US Air Force F-16 fighters, South Korea’s F-15K fired two joint direct attack munition (JDAM) bombs against a virtual target at the Jikdo shooting field in the West Sea,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, referring to the Yellow Sea.

The drills aimed to demonstrate the allies’ “capabilities to conduct a precision strike at the origin of provocations,” they added.

North Korea fires ballistic missile over Japan

North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan for the first time in five years Tuesday, prompting Tokyo to activate its missile alert system and issue a rare warning for people to take shelter.

The latest launch — which the United States branded “reckless and dangerous” — comes in a record year of sanctions-busting weapons tests by North Korea, which recently revised its laws to declare itself an “irreversible” nuclear power.

The last time Pyongyang fired a missile over Japan was in 2017, at the height of a period of “fire and fury” when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traded insults with US president Donald Trump.

South Korea said the intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) flew some 4,500 kilometres (2,800 miles) — possibly a new distance record for North Korean tests, which are usually conducted on a lofted trajectory to avoid flying over neighbouring countries.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called the launch a “provocation” that violated UN regulations and vowed a “stern response” in a statement issued by his office.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida described it as “an act of violence”, while European Union head Charles Michel called it “an unjustified aggression”.

The US State Department said the “reckless and dangerous launch” posed “an unacceptable threat to the Japanese public”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to his counterparts in Seoul and Tokyo, with all three slamming North Korea’s “blatant disregard of multiple UN Security Council resolutions.”

Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the missile could have been a Hwasong-12.

Pyongyang used Hwasong-12s the last two times it fired missiles over Japan — in August and September 2017 — tweeted Chad O’Carroll of specialist site NK News.

Japan activated its missile warning system and urged people in two northern regions of the country to take shelter early Tuesday.

North Korea was not responding to routine daily contact on the inter-Korean liaison line Tuesday, South Korea’s unification ministry said.