TOKYO, October 14. /TASS/. A few hours after North Korea’s missile launch, Pyongyang said it had taken "strong military countermeasures" in response to South Korea’s artillery fire near the demarcation line, the North Korean army’s spokesman said in a statement on Friday.
"According to a report on enemy movements in the front, the south Korean army conducted an artillery fire for about 10 hours near the forward defense area of the KPA Fifth Corps on Oct. 13," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted a spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People's Army (KPA) as saying in a statement.
The spokesman said that "strong military countermeasures" were taken to respond to what he described as "provocative action."
The nature of those measures was not disclosed, but the statement was made a few hours after a North Korean ballistic missile launch, detected by Japan and South Korea.
The spokesman also said the KPA "sends a stern warning" to the South Korean military, who are "inciting military tension in the frontline area with reckless action."
According to the Japanese Defense Ministry, the missile covered the distance of 650 km, reaching the maximum altitude of 50 km and splashed down outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone. It was the 27th missile launch of North Korea this year, as Pyongyang stepped up its missile activities in the past few weeks.
Against this backdrop, the United States deployed its USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier to the region and conducted trilateral exercises with South Korea and Japan on September 30, triggering an angry response from Pyongyang.