South Korean Drill Simulates Destruction of North's Regime

South Korea responded to the North's brazen new show of defiance with a calculated display of its own: It conducted a bombing drill that simulated the destruction of its neighbor's regime, reports CNN. Specifically, four jet fighters dropped eight one-ton bombs on a target, and all hit the mark. The move came hours after North Korea fired a missile that flew over Japan before splashing down in the ocean. "The drill reconfirmed South Korea Air Force capability to destroy the enemy's leadership in cases of emergency," a South Korea military official tells the network. China, meanwhile, warned that the situation on the Korean peninsula is now at a "tipping point and approaching a crisis," per the Australian.

However, China's foreign ministry spokesperson also spoke of the possibility of reopening peace talks, and she laid some of the blame for the current tensions on South Korea and the US, currently conducting joint military exercises. "We hope relevant parties can consider how we can de-escalate the situation on the peninsula and realize peace and stability." Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the North Korean missile a "grave threat" to his country and spoke by phone with President Trump for 40 minutes, reports the Guardian. Abe said they agreed to ramp up international pressure on Pyongyang. The North Korean missile flew about 1,600 miles and reached a height of 340 miles, and the AP sees the launch as a sign that Pyongyang is showing it can follow through on its threat to hit the US territory of Guam should it choose to do so. (More South Korea stories.)