South Korea scrambled about 80 fighter jets after spotting a large number of North Korean warplanes over four hours on Friday, the country’s military said, in a further escalation of regional tensions.
In a statement, South Korea’s military said it spotted about 180 North Korean military aircraft between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. local time, a day after Pyongyang is believed to have conducted a failed test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
Tensions on the Korean peninsula began to rise on Monday when the “Vigilant Storm” joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea began, involving hundreds of aircraft and thousands of military personnel from both countries, according to the US.
North Korea accused its allies of provocative action and on Wednesday fired 23 missiles from its east and west coasts – the most in a single day – into waters on either side of the peninsula, prompting Seoul to respond with three surface-to-air missiles. missiles.
Friday’s deployment to South Korea included an unspecified number of F-35A stealth fighters, the statement said, and South Korean warplanes participating in the ongoing joint maneuvers were also “maintaining a posture of readiness,” the South Korean military said.
After Thursday’s suspected ICBM test, the US and South Korea announced they would extend the drills for an extra day until November 5, a move a North Korean official denounced as a “very dangerous and false choice”, according to state media information.
Later, after a meeting with his South Korean counterpart at the Pentagon, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin accused North Korea of ”irresponsible and reckless activities”.
“We have said in the past that this type of activity is potentially destabilizing in the region. That’s why we’re calling on them to stop this kind of activity and start engaging in serious dialogue,” Austin said.
A United Nations Security Council meeting is expected to take place on Friday to discuss Pyongyang’s recent missile launches. According to a spokesman for the US mission to the UN, the US, the UK, France, Albania, Ireland and Norway had requested an open meeting.
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield condemned North Korea’s actions, saying Pyongyang violated several Security Council resolutions.
Thomas-Greenfield said the United Nations would “put pressure” on China and Russia to improve and strengthen such sanctions. He declined to say whether US President Joe Biden would impose sanctions with China’s President Xi at the G20, but said it was “on the President’s mind”.
