North Korea fired more than 20 missiles on Wednesday, including one that landed close to South Korea's waters for the first time since the peninsula was divided, South Korea's military said.
Air raid sirens sounded on a South Korean island and residents were evacuated to underground shelters.
In response, the South fired three air-to-ground missiles north of the maritime border between North and South Korea after President Yoon Suk-yeol called the incident “effectively a territorial invasion”.
South Korea said at least 23 missiles — 17 in the morning and six in the afternoon — were launched off its eastern and western coasts on Wednesday. It said the weapons were all short-range ballistic missiles or suspected surface-to-air missiles.
One of North Korea's short range ballistic missile crossed the Northern Limit Line, the maritime border between the two countries, prompting a rare warning for residents on the island of Ulleungdo to seek shelter in bunkers.
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 at the South Korean-US military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal.
The military said it was the first time since the peninsula was divided at the end of the of Korean War hostilities in 1953 that a North Korean missile had landed so close to the South's territorial waters.
“[Yoon] pointed out today that North Korea's provocation is an effective territorial invasion by a missile that crossed the Northern Limit Line for the first time since the division,” his office said.
The missile that was closest to South Korea landed in waters just 57 kilometres east of the South Korean mainland, the military said.
It said the launch near South Korean territorial waters was “very rare and intolerable”.
“Our military vowed to respond firmly to this (provocation),” it said.
An Air raid warning was issued for Ulleungdo that was flashed on national television and told residents to “evacuate to the nearest underground shelter”.
The South Korean military's Joint Chiefs of Staff initially said it detected the launch of three short range ballistic missiles.
But it later announced North Korea had fired “at least 10 missiles of various types today towards the east and west”.
Mr Yoon called a meeting of the National Security Council over the launches, ordering “swift and stern measures so that North Korea's provocations pay a clear price.”
Japan also confirmed North Korean missile launches, with prime minister Fumio Kishida saying he planned to call a “national security meeting as soon as possible”.
Pyongyang's latest test firing came as Seoul and Washington staged their largest-ever joint air drills, “Vigilant Storm” involving hundreds of war planes.
Pak Jong Chon, a high-ranking official in North Korea, said the drills were aggressive and provocative, state media reported.
Mr Pak said the name of the South Korea-US exercises harks back to Operation Desert Storm, the US-led military assault on Iraq in 1990-91 after it invaded Kuwait.
“If the US and South Korea attempt to use armed forces against the [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] without any fear, the special means of the DPRK's armed forces will carry out their strategic mission without delay,” he said.
“The US and South Korea will have to face a terrible case and pay the most horrible price in history.”
Wednesday's launches appeared to be “the most aggressive and threatening armed demonstration against the South since 2010,” Cheong Seong-chang, a researcher at the Sejong Institute, told AFP.
“It is now a dangerous and unstable situation that could lead to armed conflicts,” he said.
In March 2010, a North Korean submarine torpedoed the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan, killing 46 sailors, including 16 who were on their mandatory military service.
In November that year, the North shelled a South Korean border island, killing two marines, both of them young conscripts.
Wednesday's missile tests follow a recent blitz of launches, including what the North said were tactical nuclear drills.
Washington and Seoul have repeatedly said that the launches could culminate in another nuclear test, which would be Pyongyang's seventh.
“As far as I can remember, North Korea has never made such a provocation when South Korea and the US were holding their joint drills,” said Park Won-gon, a professor at Ewha University.
“Pyongyang seems to have completed its most powerful deterrent. This is a serious threat. The North also seem confident in their nuclear capabilities.”
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Bareilly Ki Barfi
Directed by: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Starring: Kriti Sanon, Ayushmann Khurrana, Rajkummar Rao
Three and a half stars
Biog
Mr Kandhari is legally authorised to conduct marriages in the gurdwara
He has officiated weddings of Sikhs and people of different faiths from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Russia, the US and Canada
Father of two sons, grandfather of six
Plays golf once a week
Enjoys trying new holiday destinations with his wife and family
Walks for an hour every morning
Completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Loyola College, Chennai, India
2019 is a milestone because he completes 50 years in business
India team for Sri Lanka series
Test squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Priyank Panchal, Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Shubhman Gill, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharath (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Jayant Yadav, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Sourabh Kumar, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.
T20 squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Surya Kumar Yadav, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Deepak Hooda, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Avesh Khan
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Votes
Total votes: 1.8 million
Ashraf Ghani: 923,592 votes
Abdullah Abdullah: 720,841 votes
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The drill
Recharge as needed, says Mat Dryden: “We try to make it a rule that every two to three months, even if it’s for four days, we get away, get some time together, recharge, refresh.” The couple take an hour a day to check into their businesses and that’s it.
Stick to the schedule, says Mike Addo: “We have an entire wall known as ‘The Lab,’ covered with colour-coded Post-it notes dedicated to our joint weekly planner, content board, marketing strategy, trends, ideas and upcoming meetings.”
Be a team, suggests Addo: “When training together, you have to trust in each other’s abilities. Otherwise working out together very quickly becomes one person training the other.”
Pull your weight, says Thuymi Do: “To do what we do, there definitely can be no lazy member of the team.”
Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
GIANT REVIEW
Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Athale
Rating: 4/5
Specs
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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