North Korea Launches Two Missiles in Protest Over US-South Korea Military Drills

North Korea fired two missiles into the sea on Monday, in what is being seen as a protest over the US and South Korea commencing their huge annual war games. Today's incident quickly raised tensions and diplomatic condemnation, in what has become an yearly game of brinksmanship.

"If North Korea takes provocative actions, our military will react firmly and strongly so North Korea will regret it in its bones," said South Korean Defense Minister Kim Min-seok in a press statement.

South Korea said the two ballistics were fired from the city of Nampo, on the west coast of the Korean peninsula, and travelled 305 miles before landing off the shore of the east coast. The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were most likely Scud C or Scud D rockets.

The US-South Korea military drill is made up of the operation known as Foal Eagle and a concurrent post exercise called Key Resolve. Kim told reporters that during 2014's exercises North Korea launched some 90 ballistic missiles.

This is one of the largest military exercises in the world. Last year some 200,000 South Korean troops and 12,700 US personnel took part in several weeks' worth of maneuvers and training operations. This year the operation runs from March 2 to April 24.

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