North Korea launches 17 missiles, one of which lands for the first time off the coast of South Korea.

 (Reuters) - SEOUL, Nov 2 (Reuters) - North Korea launched at least 17 missiles into the sea on Wednesday, including one that landed less than 60 kilometres (40 miles) off South Korea's coast, which South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol described as Pyongyang's "territorial encroachment."

It was the first time a ballistic missile had landed near South Korean waters since the peninsula was divided, and the North had fired the most missiles in a single day. As tensions in the region rose, South Korea issued rare air raid warnings and launched its own missiles.

The missile landed outside South Korean territorial waters, but south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a disputed maritime border between the two Koreas.

In response, South Korean warplanes launched three air-to-ground missiles into the sea north of the NLL, according to the South's military. According to an official, the weapons used included an AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER, a "stand-off" precision attack weapon made in the United States that can fly for up to 270 km (170 miles) with a 360 kg (800-pound) warhead.

Yoon's office promised a "swift and firm response" so that North Korea "pays the price for provocation."

"North Korea's provocation today was an effective act of territorial encroachment by a missile intruding the NLL for the first time since the division of the two Koreas," Yoon's office said.According to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), the North Korean weapon was one of three short-range ballistic missiles fired into the sea from the North Korean coastal area of Wonsan. According to the JCS, up to 14 other missiles of various types were fired from North Korea's east and west coasts.

According to the JCS, one of the missiles landed 26 kilometres south of the NLL, 57 kilometres (35 miles) east of the South Korean city of Sokcho, and 167 kilometres from the island of Ulleung, where air raid warnings were issued.

"We heard the siren around 8:55 a.m., and everyone in the building went down to the evacuation location in the basement," an Ulleung county official told Reuters. "We stayed there until around 9:15, when we heard the projectile had fallen into the high seas."

A resident in the island's south said they had received no warnings.

According to South Korea's military, the North also fired more than 100 rounds of artillery from its east coast into a military buffer zone established in a military agreement with the South.

According to the JCS, the firing violates the 2018 agreement.

Nuclear-armed North Korea has conducted a record number of missile tests this year, and Seoul and Washington officials say the North has completed technical preparations for a nuclear weapon test for the first time since 2017.

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