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By Lee Minji and Chae Yun-hwan
SEOUL, March 10 (Yonhap) -- North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles toward the Yellow Sea on Monday, South Korea's military said, as Seoul and Washington launched their annual military drills.
It marked the North's first known ballistic missile test since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch from the inner land of the North's Hwanghae Province at around 1:50 p.m. but did not provide further details.
The JCS said it has bolstered surveillance and maintained a full readiness posture under close cooperation with the United States.
South Korea and the U.S. launched their annual Freedom Shield exercise on Monday for an 11-day run.
North Korea has long denounced the allies' joint exercises as a rehearsal for an invasion against it and has a track record of staging weapons tests in response.
The North released back-to-back statements denouncing the latest joint drills, threatening that Seoul and Washington will pay a "horrible" price for their "dangerous provocative act."
A new intermediate-range ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead is launched on Jan. 6, 2025, in this file photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency the following day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
mlee@yna.co.kr
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