South Korea and the US early yesterday said that they fired eight surface-to-surface missiles off South Korea’s east coast, responding to a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles launched by North Korea on Sunday.
The action is a demonstration of “the capability and readiness to carry out precision strikes” against the source of North Korea’s missile launches, or the command and support centers, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency cited the South Korean military as saying.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office last month, has vowed to take a tougher line against North Korea, and agreed with US President Joe Biden at a summit in Seoul last month to upgrade joint military drills and their combined deterrence posture.
Photo: Reuters
This year, North Korea has conducted a flurry of missile launches, and Yoon said that its missile and nuclear weapons programs have reached a level at which they pose a threat to regional and world peace.
South Korea “will continue to build fundamental and practical security capabilities and deter the North’s nuclear and missile threats,” Yoon told an event for South Korea’s Memorial Day.
The militaries of South Korea and the US fired eight surface-to-surface missiles in about 10 minutes starting at 4:45am yesterday in response to the eight missiles fired by North Korea on Sunday, Yonhap reported.
An official from the South Korean Ministry of Defense said that eight Army Tactical Missile Systems had been fired.
The US Indo-Pacific Command said the exercise included one US Army missile and seven from South Korea.
“The ROK-US Alliance remains committed to peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and throughout the Indo-Pacific region,” it said in a statement, using the initials of South Korea’s official name.
North Korea’s short-range ballistic missiles, fired toward the sea off its east coast on Sunday, were probably its largest single test, and came a day after South Korea and the US ended joint military drills.
The South Korea-US bilateral exercises involved a US aircraft carrier for the first time in more than four years.
Japan and the US also conducted a joint military exercise on Sunday in response to the latest North Korea missile tests.
North Korea, which is several weeks into battling its first known outbreak of COVID-19, has criticized previous joint drills as an example of Washington’s continued “hostile policies” toward Pyongyang, despite its talk of diplomacy.
Yonhap, citing an unidentified source, said North Korea’s volley on Sunday was launched from four locations, including Sunan in the capital, Pyongyang.
Ewha University international studies professor Leif-Eric Easley said that South Korea’s missile defenses are insufficient against the expanding North Korean threat.
“This calls not only for further investments in hardware, but also a more multilayered approach coordinated with Japan and diplomatic efforts with Beijing to reduce arms race dynamics with Pyongyang,” Easley said.
North Korea continued with its trend of not reporting on missile launches in state media, which some analysts have said is meant to show the tests are part of routine military drills.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS