MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th June, 2022) South Korea and the United States test-fired eight missiles on Sunday, in response to North Korea's latest missile test, the South Korean Yonhap news agency reports.
Yonhap said citing the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) on Monday morning that the ground-to-ground Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles were test-fired "at various targets" from an eastern coastal region in South Korea's Gangwon Province into the Sea of Japan.
The test-fire lasted for around 10 minutes and started at 04:45 a.m. local time on Monday (19:45 GMT on Sunday), according to the JCS.
"The South Korea-U.S. combined firing of the ground-to-ground missiles demonstrated the capability and posture to launch immediate precision strikes on the origins of provocations and their command and support forces," the JCS said in a statement, as quoted by Yonhap.
The US Indo-Pacific Command said that South Korea and the US test-fired one US missile and seven South Korean missiles.
"To demonstrate the ability of the combined U.S.-ROK force to respond quickly to crisis events, U.S. Forces Korea and Republic of Korea militaries conducted a combined live-fire exercise," the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement.
After North Korea's launches on Sunday, the US also conducted a joint ballistic missile exercise with Japan, according to the US Indo-Pacific Command.
The South Korean military has strongly condemned North Korea's ballistic missile launches and urged Pyongyang to stop raising military tensions in the region.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said during her Memorial Day speech at the National Cemetery in Seoul on Monday that South Korea was going to "sternly respond to any kind of North Korean provocation."
According to the South Korean military, Pyongyang test-fired a total of eight short-range ballistic missiles, including the KN-23 missile, from four different locations toward the Sea of Japan on Sunday. The Sunday test-firing was North Korea's 18th missile test since the start of this year.
