North Korea Warns of 'Uncontrollable' Tensions as Missiles Fly

Pak Jong-chon, secretary of the Central Committee of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, warned against joint efforts by the United States and South Korea to extend the Vigilant Storm air drill.

"It was reported that the U.S. and South Korea decided to extend the combined air drill Vigilant Storm," the North Korean official said in a recent statement issued by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, according to The Korea Times. "It is a very dangerous and false choice."

South Korea's air force announced that it will extend the five-day air drill that started on Monday to improve military training and resistance amid rising tensions with North Korea, according to The Korea Herald. However, no details were revealed about how long the military exercise has been extended.

"The irresponsible decision of the U.S. and South Korea is shoving the present situation caused by provocative military acts of the allied forces to an uncontrollable phase," Pak said in the statement, according to the Herald. "The U.S. and South Korea will get to know what an irrevocable and awful mistake they made."

North Korea launched several short-range ballistic missiles Thursday night (South Korea time), which prompted the decision to extend the joint U.S.-South Korea air drills, according to Reuters. South Korea's military said that the missiles were fired from Koksan County in North Hwanghae Province toward the East Sea, The Korea Herald reported.

"A strong combined defense posture of the [Republic of Korea]-U.S. alliance is necessary under the current security crisis that is escalating due to North Korean provocations," an unnamed official from South Korea's air force said in a statement, according to Reuters.

Earlier this week, Pak criticized the joint military exercises, which Reuters reported were supposed to end Friday, describing them as an "excessive military confrontation of the hostile forces," according to a statement translated by KCNA Watch.

"It is a very ominous omen," he added. "We can no longer pardon their military recklessness and provocation."

North Korea's provocations have been escalating as the country recently fired 23 missiles, raising concerns from Seoul and Washington, according to Reuters. A hundred artillery shells were also launched into the waterways east and west of South Korea, according to U.S. News & World Report.

Last month, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that its naval forces fired warning shots after a North Korean merchant vessel crossed a contested maritime boundary known as the Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea, called the West Sea by the Koreas, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.

Meanwhile, North Korea announced in a statement shortly afterward that it was the South's forces that violated the disputed sea boundary.

"An escort ship of the 2nd Fleet of the puppet south Korean navy invaded the Military Demarcation Line under the control of the Korean People's Army on the sea 2.5 to 5 km in the waters 20 km northwest of Paekryong Island at around 3:50 on Monday to open 'warning fire' on the excuse of controlling an unidentified ship," the statement said, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

Newsweek reached out to South Korea's foreign affairs ministry for comment.