North Korea fires ballistic missiles

North Korea yesterday fired two ballistic missiles and flew warplanes, while claiming its recent blitz of sanctions-busting tests were necessary countermeasures against joint military drills by the United States and South Korea. As the United Nations Security Council met to discuss Pyongyang's Tuesday launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile over Japan, North Korea blamed Washington for "escalating the military tensions on the Korean peninsula". The recent launches -- six in less than two weeks -- were "the just counteraction measures of the Korean People's Army", Pyongyang's foreign ministry said in a statement yesterday. Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have ramped up joint military drills in recent weeks, and carried out fresh exercises yesterday involving a US navy destroyer from the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier's strike group. The United States redeployed the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to waters east of South Korea as part of a broad-ranging military response to Pyongyang's Tuesday test, which also included joint bombing and missile drills. The carrier's redeployment prompted an angry response from the North. Seoul's military said it had scrambled 30 fighter jets yesterday after 12 North Korean warplanes staged a rare "formation flight north of the inter-Korean air boundary [and] conducted air-to-surface firing drills."