DPRK responds to South Korea, US "provocations"
Pyongyang responds to the US military's exercises with South Korea and Japan, as the DPRK accuses them of preparing for an invasion.
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Missile tests by the DPRK in photos taken at undisclosed locations and released on November 7, 2022 by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The DPRK is saying that it has responded to South Korea and the United States' war games by hitting key enemy targets in an exercise.
Vigilant Storm, the US and South Korea's six-day war games, ended on Saturday. It is the widest-scale military exercise of its kind, including 240 warplanes conducting 1,600 sorties.
On Monday, Pyongyang's military said that the exercises were an "open provocation aimed at intentionally escalating the tension" and "a dangerous war drill of very high aggressive nature," the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
Throughout the joint exercises, Pyongyang tested a number of missiles, including an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that failed its test, in addition to hundreds of artillery shells.
The DPRK's military also said it practiced hitting a major South Korean city to "smash the enemies' persistent war hysteria."
On Saturday, the DPRK fired four short-range ballistic missiles off its west coast, the South Korean military said, as quoted by Japanese news agency Kyodo News.
On November 1, the DPRK issued a warning to the United States and South Korea against continuing their joint military drills, vowing a more powerful response to US provocations.
"The situation in the Korean Peninsula and its vicinity has entered the serious confrontation phase of power for power again due to the ceaseless and reckless military moves of the US and South Korea," North Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a Monday statement that was carried by the country's official KCNA news agency.
"If the US continuously persists in the grave military provocations, the DPRK will take into account more powerful follow-up measures," the statement added.
