China, N.Korea Separately Hold Military Activities in the Yellow Sea

Chinese military began exercises in the Yellow Sea on Wednesday; the same day North Korea reportedly test-fired two cruise missiles towards the waterbody.

China’s Maritime Safety Administration said on its website that military activities will be carried out in parts of the Yellow Sea waters starting from 8:30 am Wednesday to 5 pm Friday, during which vessels are forbidden from entering the waters in question.

The PLA Southern Theater Command on Tuesday and Wednesday released articles and photos of its recent drills. According to information posted on its official WeChat public account on Tuesday, warplanes of some PLA naval air force brigades carried out a late-night confrontational combat training recently. Training subjects during the training were described as “real combat-oriented” and included air defense combat, cover assault combat and battles to gain air supremacy, the Global Times reported.

On Wednesday morning, the PLA Southern Theater Command continued to update information on another recent live-fire drills, during which PLA troopers practiced battalion tactics. Pictures attached with this release showed that tent building, bunker construction as well as battlefield emergency responding were practiced. Also, at the real-trooper confrontation stage, the participating battalions conduct reconnaissance through drones. Multiple tactics were verified during the training. Heavy machine gun shootings, single-man rocket shooting at night and single-man shooting at night were also seen in the pictures.

Meanwhile, North Korea tested two cruise missiles as President Yoon Suk-yeol held a press conference on August 17 to mark the 100th day since taking office.

"(The military) has detected two cruise missiles launched by North Korea from Onchon, South Pyongan Province, into the Yellow Sea early this morning," a South Korean military official was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.

The source did not provide any other details, including the exact type of missiles and time of the firing.

The North's first known launch of a cruise missile since January comes a day after South Korean and American military troops kicked off preliminary drills just ahead of the start of their annual combined Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise.