North Korea Launches Two Missiles in Response to Military Exercises

North Korea has threatened to take "ruthless revenge" on the joint annual military exercises conducted by the United States and South Korea by firing two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea. According to Agence France-Presse, on Monday, March 11, Pyongyang described the exercises as "brazen confrontation" with North Korea and condemned them. The North Korean military also warned that the joint exercises by South Korea and the United States this year would bring the Korean Peninsula "to the brink of war." North Korea, which has a nuclear program, has long threatened its southern neighbor and other countries like Japan and the United States with nuclear attacks on various occasions. The South Korean Ministry of Defense announced that the two Scud missiles were launched from the Nampo port in the west of the country and fell into the waters off North Korea's eastern coast. Japan has also strongly protested the launch of these two missiles, stating that it has alerted North Korea to the dangers these missiles pose to air and sea routes. However, China has urged both Koreas to exercise restraint. The missile launch by North Korea coincided with the start of the largest phase of the joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States on Monday. In this eight-week air, sea, and ground exercise, about 200,000 South Korean military personnel and 3,700 American forces are participating. Another phase of this exercise will last a week and will be based on computer simulations. South Korea and the United States claim that their joint annual exercises are defensive in nature, but the North Korean Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling it an "intolerable aggression" and announced Pyongyang's readiness to confront "any war that the United States chooses."