North Korea fired an ICBM on Friday, the latest in a record string of missile launches in recent weeks, as Seoul and Washington expect Pyongyang to prepare for imminent nuclear tests, according to the South Korean military.
And the South Korean General Staff said it “spotted a suspected long-range ballistic missile that was launched at approximately 10:15 (01:15 GMT) from the Sunan area of Pyongyang towards the East Sea.”
For its part, Tokyo indicated that the missile had traveled a distance of a thousand kilometers and that Japan had not attempted to destroy it during its flight. Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the missile had reached a maximum altitude of 6,000 km, concluding that it was an intercontinental ballistic missile that is one of the most powerful weapons in North Korea’s arsenal.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the launch, calling on Pyongyang to “immediately stop any further provocative actions,” according to his spokesman.
Later, the Japanese Ministry of Defense announced that it had conducted joint military exercises with the United States immediately after the missile was launched.
The ministry said in a statement that these maneuvers “reaffirm the firm will of Japan and the United States to respond to any situation (…), and strengthen the containment and response capabilities of the Japan-US alliance.”
gross violation
The United States “strongly condemned” the missile launch, saying it “constitutes a flagrant violation of numerous UN Security Council resolutions and unnecessarily heightens tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region.”
In Bangkok, where the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum (APEC) summit is taking place, US Vice President Kamala Harris met with the leaders of Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Later on Friday, a senior official traveling with Harris said Washington would ask China, North Korea’s top ally, to help rein in Pyongyang.
“Undoubtedly, part of our diplomacy will be trying to convince China to join the countries that publicly denounce this today and use their influence to convince North Korea,” said the official, who asked not to be named.
The White House also said that the missile launch did not pose a threat to the United States. “As far as we are concerned, we believe that the launch (of the missile) did not pose a threat to the homeland,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
But Kirby expressed concern about this new chapter in launching short- and long-range missiles that could carry nuclear warheads.
North Korea also fired a short-range ballistic missile on Thursday, hours after its foreign minister warned of a “violent” response to a bolstered security alliance between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington.
The United States, South Korea and Japan have stepped up their joint military maneuvers in recent months in the face of threats from North Korea, which sees the drills as preparation to invade its territory or overthrow its regime.
During a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Bali on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden tried to convince his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to intervene in North Korea’s affairs to stop nuclear testing.
Fear of a nuclear test
On Sunday, Biden, his South Korean counterpart Yun Suk Yul, and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida promised a “strong and firm” response if Pyongyang carried out the experiment, which, if carried out, would be North Korea’s first since 2017 and seventh in a row. story.
North Korean Foreign Minister Choi Song-hui on Thursday condemned the meetings between the leaders, saying they were “putting the situation on the Korean Peninsula into an unpredictable phase.”
Choi stressed that the more Washington tries to strengthen its security alliance with Tokyo and Seoul, the “tougher will be the reaction of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”, using the official name of North Korea.
In early November, North Korea launched an unprecedented batch of projectiles, including a ballistic missile that landed near South Korean territorial waters, whose President Yoon condemned the “invasion” of his country.
On November 2, 23 missiles were launched, more than in all of 2017, when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then-US President Donald Trump exchanged threats.
In September and October, Pyongyang launched several missiles, one of which flew over Japan for the first time in five years. The North Korean regime presented these tests as a simulation of “tactical nuclear” strikes against targets in South Korea.
Analysts say North Korea, which is barred by UN resolutions from launching ballistic missiles, has grown bolder because of the ability to evade any other sanctions that may be imposed on it because of divisions in the Security Council.
For its part, Russia on Friday accused the United States of “testing Pyongyang’s patience” after the missile launch. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow remains “loyal” to seeking a “diplomatic” solution on the Korean Peninsula, but “the US and its allies in the region (…) prefer a different path (…) as if testing Pyongyang’s patience “. “We are watching the situation with concern,” he added.