The North is flying warplanes near their shared border and launching the latest in a series of missiles, while the South is conducting a live-fire artillery drill.
According to the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, North Korean aircraft approached the border no-fly zone between 10:30 p.m. Thursday and 12:20 a.m. Friday, prompting Pyongyang to launch its 27th missile of the year just hours later.
The North’s planes were just 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from the northern limit of the Military Demarcation Line, which runs down the center of the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, according to the JCS.
South Korea retaliated by scrambling fighter planes, including its top-tier F-35s. According to the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency, the actions were in response to 10 hours of live-fire artillery exercises near the border by South Korea.
The South Korean military confirmed to CNN that an artillery exercise had taken place 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border, but claimed that it did not violate a treaty with the North that governs such exercises.
Instead, Seoul claims Pyongyang violated the agreement earlier Friday when it fired 170 rounds of artillery into the sea off its west coast.
“Artillery firing in the maritime buffer zones is a clear violation of the September 19 military agreement, and the launch of short-range ballistic missiles is also a violation of UN Security Council resolutions,” the JCS said.
“We sternly warn against North Korea’s repeated provocations and strongly urge [North Korea] to stop them immediately.”
The flurry of military activity on both sides of the border came just hours after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned his nuclear forces are fully prepared for “actual war.”
“Our nuclear combat forces … proved again their full preparedness for actual war to bring the enemies under their control,” Kim said in comments reported by KCNA.
Kim’s furious statement, his first on North Korea’s missile programme in several months, came after he reportedly oversaw a test of long-range cruise missiles over waters west of the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday, according to KCNA.
North Korean state media broke its six-month silence on this year’s missile tests on Monday, claiming they were intended to demonstrate Pyongyang’s readiness to fire tactical nuclear warheads at potential targets in South Korea.
According to KCNA, the tests demonstrated that the country’s forces were “fully ready to hit and wipe out the set objects at the intended places in the set time.”
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