South Korea's presidential office convened an emergency security review meeting with the Ministry of National Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other relevant agencies immediately after North Korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles from the Wonsan area toward the East Sea on the 12th.
The National Security Office said it held the emergency meeting the same day to review the government's response. At the meeting, the office analyzed and assessed the launches' impact on national security, reviewed necessary measures and called for full readiness.
The National Security Office described North Korea's ballistic missile launches as a grave violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions and urged Pyongyang to halt them immediately.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said earlier that the South Korean military detected several ballistic missiles launched from the Wonsan area toward the East Sea at about 5:20 a.m. "Our military has strengthened surveillance and vigilance in preparation for additional launches, while South Korea, the United States and Japan are closely sharing information on the North Korean ballistic missiles and maintaining full readiness," the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The launches came 23 days after North Korea's previous ballistic missile launch on the 20th of last month. At around 5 p.m. that day, North Korea fired more than 10 short-range ballistic missiles, believed to be 600-millimeter super-large multiple rocket launchers known as the KN-25, from the Pyongyang area toward the East Sea.
At the time, South Korean and U.S. forces were conducting Ulchi Freedom Shield, their regular theater-level combined exercise on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea has responded with successive ballistic missile launches to combined military drills aimed at the North, including the UFS exercise and the Freedom Edge trilateral drills involving South Korea, the United States and Japan.
