According to South Korean intelligence, North Korea responded to President Donald Trump’s peace overtures on Thursday by launching about a dozen short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) into the Sea of Japan just hours after Trump scaled back U.S.-South Korean military exercises and offered to talk with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
North Korea launched several short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan on Tuesday, just hours before the U.S. presidential election kicked into high gear.
The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) of China and the Russian Navy began a four-day joint military exercise in the Sea of Japan on Thursday, hilariously billed by China’s state-run Global Times as a contribution to “the safeguarding of peace and stability in Asia-Pacific amid tensions and potential threats in the region.”
Russian military aircraft entered South Korea’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Tuesday without giving Seoul prior notice, prompting the Republic of Korea Air Force to scramble fighter jets in response, Yonhap News Agency reported.
North Korea’s government media outlets remained mum on Thursday as of press time regarding reports from Seoul that the communist regime launched an intercontinental ballistic missile. The North Korean launch followed a report that South Korea’s President-Elect Yoon Suk-yeol would pressure Pyongyang on human rights.
The navies of both China and Russia dispatched a joint group of 10 vessels to sail through Japan’s Tsugaru Strait — which links the Sea of Japan with the Pacific Ocean — on Monday, Japan’s Defense Ministry said.
North Korea apparently launched a short-range ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan on Tuesday, its third provocative test of banned missiles in the past month. The North Korean regime insisted the weapons tests were an appropriate response to the “hostile policy” of the United States and South Korea.
Japan’s air force recently deployed F-15 fighter jets to intercept two Russian nuclear-capable Tupolev Tu-95MS bombers flying over the Sea of Japan, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported on Thursday.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that one of its ships on Tuesday intercepted a U.S. Navy destroyer in its sovereign waters and successfully drove it out with a threat to ram the intruding vessel.
Japan’s Fisheries Agency has advised Japanese fishing boats to avoid certain areas within Japan’s own exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and operate elsewhere after thousands of Chinese fishing boats ignored Tokyo’s previous warnings in recent weeks to exit the country’s waters.
The U.S. Navy deployed its guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell near Russia-contested waters in the Sea of Japan on Wednesday as it begun taking the necessary steps to sail a warship into the Black Sea, west of Russia, amid increased tensions in the wake of the Kremlin’s seizure of three Ukrainian military vessels.
