© South Korea Defense Ministry via APIn this photo provided by South Korea Defense Ministry, South Korean Air Force's F15K fighter jets and U.S. Air Force's F-16 fighter jets, fly in formation during a joint drill in an undisclosed location in South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022.
According to a statement quoted by Yonhap news agency, eight North Korean fighters and four bombers were spotted at around 2pm and "conducted air-to-surface firing drills for about an hour."
South Korea immediately sent 30 fighter jets and other planes, the Joint Chiefs of Staff revealed. There was no clash, it added, as North Korea, aircraft did not cross the "tactical action line."
The military emphasized that the incident can be described as highly unusual due to the scale of the DPRK's drills.
"South Korean armed forces in close cooperation with the US are closely monitoring the North Korean military-related movements and maintaining a readiness posture for further provocations," the Joint Chiefs of Staff stated.
The news came hours after North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles in an eastern direction. Pyongyang said that the test was a "just counteraction" after several rounds of joint military drills between the United States and South Korea. Such exercises have long been considered by the DPRK as rehearsals for an invasion.
The blitz from the north came the day after the South Korean military confirmed the redeployment near the country's coast of the US aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS Ronald Reagan. Seoul's military said this was a response to North Korea's "successive provocations and threats."
Pyongyang has conducted a record number of missile launches this year, staging six in the last 14 days.
Comment: It seems tensions are heating up in the region, and it's possible that provocative movements with the US carrier strike group are, in part, intended to do just that. However, thus far, it has also been rather revealing because, as noted above, the North's missile 'test' resulted in Seoul firing 4 ballistic missiles of their own, except one failed to launch correctly and ended up exploding in their airfield. And this is just the latest blooper the West's own militaries have had to contend with: Symbolic: UK's largest warship HMS Prince of Wales breaks down ONE day after leaving Portsmouth for four month deployment to US