South Korea has taken fighter jets into the air after it registered that North Korea has set in motion more than 180 military aircraft, the Yonhap news agency reported on Friday.
According to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, Seoul has lifted about 80 stealth fighter jets, including F-35A, after spotting over 100 warplanes over North Korea’s inland areas between around 02:00-06:00 GMT, the report added.
Pyongyang has emphasized that its test launches are being carried out in response to “provocations” by Seoul, which has recently been conducting active military exercises both independently and jointly with the US and Japan.
Meanwhile, Seoul and Washington have agreed to extend the large-scale joint exercise Vigilant Storm, which was supposed to end on Friday, by one more day until November 5. The exercise involves the mobilization of about 240 military aircraft, including F-35 stealth fighter jets, around the Korean Peninsula.
Amid all the threats, Japan is going to modernize its J-Alert early warning system to fix issues with its accuracy discovered during the recent missile launches conducted by North Korea, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said on Friday.
On Thursday morning, North Korea conducted tests involving one long-range ballistic missile and two short-range ballistic missiles, according to the Yonhap news agency. An air alert was triggered in Japan; however, the missiles did not actually fly over Japanese territory. This sparked criticism over the warning system’s lack of accuracy.
“There are different views on how to speed up issuance of a warning and responsible ministries will consider measures on its improvement and modernization,” Matsuno said at a press conference.
Thursday’s missile launches were the 30th conducted by North Korea this year alone. During earlier launches in October, some missiles flew over Japanese territory for the first time since 2017.
Pyongyang has emphasized that its test launches are being carried out in response to “provocations” by Seoul, which has recently been conducting active military exercises both independently and jointly with the US and Japan.
Via: Sputnik News Agency
