LOC14:13
11:13 GMT
TOKYO, March 22 (KUNA) -- South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol warned Friday that North Korea will pay a "larger price" in the event it carries out a "reckless" provocation as tension ran high over the country's continued weapons tests, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Yoon issued the warning as the nation marked West Sea Defense Day, which commemorates the 55 service members who died in action while defending the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border between South and North Korea, between 2002 and 2010, according to the report.
"Our military will maintain an ironclad readiness posture and firmly defend the Republic of Korea's freedom and the people's safety by responding immediately and overwhelmingly to any provocation," Yoon said during a memorial ceremony in Pyeongtaek, 60 km south of Seoul.
"Should North Korea carry out a reckless provocation, it will pay a larger price for sure," the president said.
North Korea this week fired short-range ballistic missiles in violation of UN Security Council resolutions and conducted a ground jet test of what it said was a solid-fuel engine for a new type of intermediate hypersonic missile.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula run high after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un issued a call in January to revise the country's constitution to define South Korea as a "primary foe and invariable principal enemy" and codify its commitment to "completely occupying" the South in the event of war.
Yoon also vowed to strengthen security cooperation with ally the US, as well as trilaterally with the US and Japan.
West Sea Defense Day commemorates the 2002 inter-Korean naval skirmish off the border island of Yeonpyeong, the 2010 sinking of the corvette Cheonan blamed on a North Korean torpedo attack, and the North's shelling of Yeonpyeong in 2010. (end)
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