SEOUL: North Korea fired “multiple unidentified ballistic missiles” on Monday, South Korea’s military said, the same day Seoul and Washington began a major annual joint military drill known as Freedom Shield.

“Our military has detected at around 13:50 multiple unidentified ballistic missiles fired from Hwanghae province into the West Sea,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, referring to the body of water also known as the Yellow Sea.

“Our military will bolster surveillance and maintain a full readiness posture under close cooperation with the United States,” the JCS added.

The United States stations tens of thousands of US soldiers in South Korea, and the allies regularly stage joint drills, which they describe as defensive in nature. But such exercises infurate Pyongyang, which regards them as rehearsals for invasion and routinely responds with weapons tests of its own.

Earlier Monday, the nuclear-armed North slammed the drills as a “provocative act”, warning of the danger of sparking war with “an accidental single shot”.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2025