North Korea fires 23 missiles, prompting air-raid alert in South

Seoul: Air-raid sirens sounded on a South Korean island and residents there evacuated to underground shelters after North Korea fired more than 20 missiles on Wednesday, at least one of them in its direction and landing near the rivals' tense sea border. South Korea quickly responded by launching its own missiles in the same border area.

The launches came hours after North Korea threatened to use nuclear weapons to get the US and South Korea to "pay the most horrible price in history" in protest of the ongoing South Korean-US military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal.

The White House maintained that the United States has no hostile intent toward North Korea and vowed to work with allies to curb North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

South Korea's military said North Korea launched at least 23 missiles — 17 in the morning and six in the afternoon — off its eastern and western coasts on Wednesday. It said the weapons were all short-range ballistic missiles or suspected surface-to-air missiles. Also Wednesday, North Korea fired about 100 artillery shells into an eastern maritime buffer zone the Koreas created in 2018 to reduce tensions.