North Korea fires missiles after US, South Korea military drills

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired several ballistic missiles into the sea Monday, South Korea’s military said, hours after South Korean and U.S. troops kicked off their large annual combined drills, which the North views as an invasion rehearsal.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile firings, North Korea’s fifth missile launch event this year, were detected from the North’s southwestern Hwanghae province. It called the weapons close-range but didn’t say how far they flew. The military said South Korea bolstered its surveillance posture and is closely coordinating with the United States.

Earlier Monday, the South Korean and U.S. militaries began their annual Freedom Shield command post exercise, their first major combined training of President Donald Trump’s second term. The allies have already been engaging in diverse field training exercises in connection with the Freedom Shield training.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry warned Monday that the latest training risks triggering “physical conflict” on the Korean Peninsula. It called the drills an “aggressive and confrontational war rehearsal” and reiterated leader Kim Jong Un’s stated goals for a “radical growth” of his nuclear force to counter what he claims as growing threats posed by the U.S. and its Asian allies.

This year’s training came after the South Korean and U.S. militaries paused live-fire training while Seoul investigates how its fighter jets mistakenly bombed a civilian area during a warm-up drill last week.

About 30 people were injured, two of them seriously, when two South Korean KF-16 fighter jets mistakenly fired eight MK-82 bombs on a civilian area in Pocheon, a town near the North Korean border, on Thursday. The bombing occurred while South Korean and U.S. forces were engaging in a live-fire drill ahead of the Freedom Shield exercise.

The initial assessment from the South Korean air force was that one of the KF-16 pilots entered the wrong coordinates and failed to visually verify the target before proceeding with the bombing. The second pilot had the correct coordinates but focused only on maintaining flight formation and dropped the bombs on the first pilot’s instructions without recognizing the target was wrong, according to the content of the latest briefing provided to The Associated Press.

Gen. Lee Youngsu, chief of staff of the South Korean air force, bowed and apologized Monday over the injuries and property damage caused by the bombing, which he said “should have never happened and must never happen again.”

Both the South Korean and U.S. militaries have halted all live-fire exercises in South Korea following the mistake. South Korean military officials say live-fire training will resume after they complete the investigation of the bombing and form preventative steps.

The South Korean air force earlier suspended the training flights of all its planes too but lifted the steps on Monday, except aircraft affiliated with the unit the two KF-16s belong to.

韩国首尔——韩国军方称，朝鲜周一向海中发射了数枚弹道导弹。此前数小时，韩国和美国军队开始了一年一度的大规模联合军演，朝鲜认为这是入侵演习。

韩国联合参谋本部表示，朝鲜今年第五次导弹发射，导弹是从朝鲜西南部黄海道探测到的。韩国方面称此次导弹发射为近程导弹，但未透露射程。军方表示，韩国已加强监视部署，并正与美国密切协调。

周一早些时候，韩国和美国军队启动了年度“自由之盾”指挥所联合演习，这是特朗普总统第二任期内两国首次举行大规模联合训练。此前，双方已就“自由之盾”演习开展了多项实地训练。

朝鲜外务省周一警告称，最新一轮的核训练有可能在朝鲜半岛引发“肢体冲突”。外务省称此次演习是“具有侵略性和对抗性的战争演练”，并重申了朝鲜领导人金正恩提出的“大幅发展”核力量的目标，以应对他所称的来自美国及其亚洲盟友日益增长的威胁。

今年的训练是在韩国和美国军方暂停实弹训练之后进行的，此前首尔方面正在调查其战斗机上周在一次热身演习中误炸平民区的事件。

周四，在靠近朝韩边境的抱川市，两架韩国KF-16战斗机误向一处平民区发射了8枚MK-82炸弹，造成约30人受伤，其中两人伤势严重。事发时，韩美军队正在进行“自由之盾”联合军演前的实弹演习。

韩国空军的初步评估是，其中一名KF-16飞行员输入了错误的坐标，并且在投弹前没有目视确认目标。据美联社获得的最新简报内容显示，另一名飞行员虽然输入了正确的坐标，但只专注于保持编队飞行，在未意识到目标错误的情况下，按照第一名飞行员的指令投下了炸弹。

韩国空军参谋长李永洙将军周一鞠躬道歉，就爆炸造成的伤亡和财产损失表示歉意。他说，这种爆炸“本不应该发生，也绝不能再次发生”。

事故发生后，韩美两军均已暂停在韩国境内的所有实弹演习。韩国军方官员表示，待完成爆炸事件调查并制定预防措施后，实弹训练将恢复。

韩国空军此前也暂停了所有飞机的训练飞行，但周一恢复了这一措施，但与这两架 KF-16 所属部队有关的飞机除外。