South Korea’s military scrambled stealth jets on Friday after detecting the mobilisation of 180 North Korean warplanes, Seoul said as it conducted large-scale joint air drills with the United States which have infuriated Pyongyang, IgbereTV reports
North Korea has launched a record-breaking blitz of missile launches this week, including a failed intercontinental ballistic missile test on Thursday.
Seoul and Washington extended their largest-ever joint air drills through Saturday in response to the North’s flurry of projectiles.
“Our military detected around 180 North Korean warplanes” mobilised in Pyongyang’s airspace, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, adding that Seoul “scrambled 80 fighter jets including F-35As” while jets involved in the joint drills were also “maintaining readiness”.
Shortly after South Korea announced the decision to extend the joint drills on Thursday, Pyongyang launched three more short-range ballistic missiles, calling the move “a very dangerous and wrong choice”.
Hours later, the North fired 80 artillery rounds that landed in a maritime “buffer zone”, Seoul’s military said.
The barrage was a “clear violation” of the 2018 agreement that established the buffer zone in a bid to reduce tensions between the two sides, Seoul’s Joints Chiefs of Staff said
