North Korea test-fires ‘multiple’ ballistic missiles as US-South Korea war games begin

SEOUL and LONDON — North Korea fired “multiple” ballistic missiles on Monday, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, as U.S.-South Korea war games began nearby.

The missiles, which were “unidentified,” were fired from the North’s Hwanghae Province at about 1:50 p.m. local time, the South Korean military said. They were aimed inland, toward the West Sea.

The South Korean military “has increased surveillance and maintaining readiness posture in close cooperation with the U.S.,” the Joint Chiefs said.

The annual U.S.-South Korea joint exercises, which are known as “Freedom Shield,” were scheduled to begin Monday and run through March 21, according to the U.S. Army.

The training alongside South Korean soldiers will include urban combat, field hospital operations, field artillery exercises, air assault training and air defenses, the Army said in a statement on Monday. The U.S. Marine Corps is also expected to take part in a joint assault exercise.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry described the planned exercises as “aggressive,” with officials telling state media on Sunday that the “U.S. random exercise of strength will result in aggravated security crisis.”

“This is a dangerous provocative act of leading the acute situation on the Korean peninsula, which may spark off a physical conflict between the two sides by means of an accidental single shot, to the extreme point,” the ministry said in a statement to the Korean Central New Agency on Sunday.

ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.