South Korea and US respond to North Korean missile launch with missile salvo

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TV images of North Korean missile launch

Photo: Lee Jin-Man / dpa

North Korea's latest missile test marks the biggest escalation in tensions in the region since 2017. South Korea and the US military have responded with a volley of missiles.

South Korean and American troops fired several short-range ATACMS missiles into the sea in response to the deal, South Korea's chiefs of staff said on Wednesday.

South Korea, US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had previously condemned the North Korean missile test in the strongest possible terms.

The European Union (EU) spoke of a "reckless and deliberately provocative action," and UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the launch as a violation of Security Council resolutions.

(Read an analysis of the regime's actions in Pyongyang here.)

The United States has asked the UN Security Council to hold a session on North Korea on Wednesday.

According to diplomats, China and Russia are opposed to a public discussion in the 15-member body.

Tuesday's test was North Korea's first launch of an intermediate-range missile in more than eight months.

The rocket was launched in the northern North Korean province of Jagang near the border with China.

According to initial estimates, it reached a distance of 4,500 kilometers and a maximum flight altitude of around 970 kilometers.

Residents should seek shelter

Japanese state broadcaster NHK reported that the Tokyo government had asked people in two northern regions of the country to seek shelter.

The Kyodo news agency also reported that the rocket launch had triggered a rare public rocket alarm: The residents of the northern Japanese island of Hokaido and the prefecture of Aomori on the northern tip of the Japanese main island of Honshu were asked with warnings to seek shelter in their homes.

It was the seventh time North Korea has fired a missile over Japan;

and for the first time in almost five years.

According to Japanese information, the rocket landed around 3000 kilometers east of Japan in the Pacific Ocean.

According to Japan's Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada, this is North Korea's furthest horizontal range for a missile.

jok/Reuters