North Korea fired several ballistic rockets into the sea Monday, just hours after the U.S. and South Korea began their annual massive military drills, Freedom Shield. The test is Pyongyang’s fifth tests this year and heightening tension in the region.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were launched from North Korea’s Hwanghae province but provided no details on their range or altitude. The launches come as the South Korea and the US resumed joint exercises, which Pyongyang sees as a precursor to invasion.
The Freedom Shield drills, on-going for 11 days, came under scrutiny earlier this week after a training blunder last week. Two South Korean KF-16 fighter jets strayed and bombed a civilian area in Pocheon on Friday, injuring 30 people, including two seriously. Since then, the South Korean Air Force has admitted the mistake, according to a miscalculation of the target coordinate as the cause. 
In response to the exercises North Korea put out a sharply worded statement through state media, calling the drills a “Provocation of Danger” and reaffirming its intentions to prosecute its nuclear program. Pyongyang says US and South Korea’s military exercises increase the danger of a conflict in the Korean Peninsula.
Meanwhile, diplomacy is stuck, with Pyongyang still not responding to following up with overtures from US President Donald Trump, who has indicated an interest in restarting talks with Kim Jong Un. The area remains on high alert due to increasing geopolitical uncertainties.
