Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin says in the event North Korea provokes South Korea the nation could launch a counter attack against targets in the North.

Kim made the remark at a parliamentary interpellation session on diplomacy, unification, and security on Wednesday. He was responding to a question by Rep. Kim Jeong-hun as to whether South Korean fighter jets would be able to operate north of the inter-Korean border if North Korea provokes South Korea again, as when it shelled Yeonpyeong Island near the Yellow Sea border last year.

The defense minister said there would be no obstacle in sending the South’s fighter jets to the North as a punitive measure.