South Korean Navy conducts 1st live-fire drills of new year

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) – The South Korean Navy conducted its first live-fire drills of the new year on Wednesday, involving warships and aircraft, amid ongoing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The naval exercises were held in waters off the country’s eastern, western, and southern coasts simultaneously, which involved 13 warships and three aircraft from the First, Second, and Third Fleets, Seoul-based Yonhap News reported.

"We must clearly recognize the grave security situation of North Korea's continued provocations and threats," Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Yang Yong-mo was quoted as saying by the agency.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula were high last year as the two Koreas conducted regular military drills and missile launches.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, in his year-end meeting with soldiers, directed troops not to wait for orders to retaliate against any “provocation” from the “enemy,” an apparent reference to North Korea.

In response, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un told his military to “thoroughly annihilate” South Korea and the US if they initiate a military confrontation.

On Tuesday, North Korea's powerful sister Kim Yo-jong strongly reacted to Yoon's announcement that a South Korea-US extended deterrence system would be completed by the first half of this year.

"It may be glad to hear or thankful that anyway, Yoon's pledge to complete the "ROK (Republic of Korea)"-US extended deterrence system by the first half of this year in his New Year address gave us again the justification and validity to further put spurs to securing more overwhelming nuclear combat capability," Kim said in a statement published by Korean Central News Agency.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid