South Korea and the United States on Wednesday conducted joint ballistic missile exercises a day after the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) declared a successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement that the missile units of South Korea and the U.S. carried out joint ballistic missile drills in the East Sea at 7 a.m. local time (2200 GMT on Tuesday) in response to the DPRK's repeated ballistic missile provocations.
The joint exercises mobilized the South Korean military's Hyunmoo-II ballistic missiles and the eighth U.S. Army's ATACMS ground-to-ground missiles to show their combined capability in emergency situations, the statement said.
The joint missile drills followed the DPRK's claim on Tuesday that it successfully test-fired a new type of ICBM, called Hwasong-14, which flew about 930 km and was lofted as high as some 2,800 km.
The joint drills were conducted as South Korean President Moon Jae-in proposed it to U.S. President Donald Trump, Yoon Young-chan, Moon's senior press secretary, told reporters.
President Moon said it would be necessary to clearly show the South Korea-U.S. combined missile preparedness to the DPRK as just announcing a statement was not enough.
