North Korea launches cruise missiles into sea after US-South Korean military drills end

North Korea on Friday, September 1, launched a barrage of cruise missiles that plunged into the sea escalating tensions with its neighbour South Korea. The launch came on the last day as the United States-South Korea concluded their military drills. In a statement, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that it detected the launches early Saturday morning off the North's west coast. It added that the South Korean and US intelligence authorities analysed the key details of the launch, and boosted its surveillance posture. Seoul is demonstrating "firm military readiness" in close coordination with the United States, the South Korean military said. 

Missile launch after US-South Korea conclude 11-day training exercises

Pyongyang's missile launch came just days after US and South Korean militaries concluded the 11-day training exercises. North Korea derided the South and its ally Washington for staging an 'invasion' mock drill. Washington and Seoul's military drills have destabilise the peninsula, North Korea asserted. North Korea also fired two short-range ballistic missiles this week just hours after the US flew long-range bombers in a show of force against the North during the join military exercises with Seoul. 

With these frequent launches, North Korea is likely demonstrating that it has missiles capable of striking key targets in South Korea in protest at its rivals' military exercises, according to the experts. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff informed in a release that the North Korean missiles travelled about 360 kilometres before landing in the waters of the Korean Peninsula's east coast. It said the missiles were launched from the North's capital region.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff has derided North Korea's missile launches labelling them as  “a grave provocation” that threatens international peace and violates UN Security Council resolutions that ban any ballistic launches by North Korea. Japan's Defence Ministry said in a statement that it also detected North Korea's missile launches. It travelled a distance of 400 kilometres at a maximum altitude of 50 kilometres before falling outside Japan's exclusive economic zone, said the Japanese military. North Korea North has been extremely assertive against the deployment of US B-1B bombers on the Korean peninsula, which it says are capable of carrying a large payload of conventional weapons and are a threat to North's security.