Anchor: North Korea carried out multiple provocations overnight, later claiming that the actions were taken in response to South Korea's firing of artillery shots the previous day. South Korea slammed the North for violating their military tensions-reducing agreement signed in 2018 as well as UN Security Council resolutions, calling for restraint.
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: From around 10:30 p.m. Thursday until 12:20 a.m. Friday, North Korea flew about ten warplanes, some traveling as far south as five kilometers north of a no-fly zone the two Koreas had set in their 2018 military tension-diffusing agreement.

This prompted the South Korean Air Force to mobilize its F-35A stealth fighters and other assets for immediate response.

The North then launched a short-range ballistic missile(SRBM) from Pyongyang's Sunan area at around 1:50 a.m. Friday, which traveled some 700 kilometers towards the East Sea at an altitude of around 50 kilometers and a top speed of Mach 6.

Before and after the SRBM launch, Pyongyang fired around 170 artillery shots, with some 130 falling into the western maritime "buffer zone" set under the 2018 agreement, and another 40 into the "buffer zone" to the east.

The General Staff Department of the Korean People's Army issued a statement soon after the SRBM launch, claiming that the overnight military actions were in response to South Korea's firing of artillery shots that lasted some ten hours on Thursday.

The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) refuted the claim, saying the shots were a part of U.S. Forces Korea's(USFK) planned rocket training.

The JCS criticized the North for firing artillery shots into buffer zones in breach of the 2018 pact and UN Security Council resolutions that ban ballistic missiles, strongly urging the regime to immediately halt such provocations.

The defense ministry sent a notice to the North through a military hotline, urging it to abide by the treaty and to prevent a recurrence.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.