Live-fire drill with the US supposed to be a show of strength, but ended in embarrassment and caused alarm among nearby residents
The South Korean military acknowledged the accident hours after internet users posted videos showing an orange ball of flames emerging from an area they described as near a Gangneung air force base. The US and South Korean militaries fired two ATACMS short-range ballistic missiles into the water “to precisely strike a virtual target,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The drills aim to “make sure that we have the military capabilities at the ready to respond to provocations by the North if it comes to that,” US national security council spokesperson John Kirby told CNN. Pyongyang’s latest launch is part of a record year of sanctions-busting weapons tests by the isolated regime, which recently revised its laws to declare itself an “irreversible” nuclear power.