North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile this Friday, which landed in the sea, in the waters of Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the Japanese Ministry of Defense announced today.
In a statement, the ministry said Pyongyang “launched an ICBM-type ballistic missile from a position near the west coast of the Korean peninsula at approximately 10:14 am” (1:14 am in Lisbon).
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called the launch “absolutely unacceptable”, confirming that the missile landed in waters within Japan’s EEZ, near the northern island of Hokkaido, without apparently causing any damage to ships or aircraft.
The Japanese coast guard asked ships crossing the area not to approach any shipwrecks that may be floating in the sea.
“North Korea has repeatedly fired missiles this year with unprecedented frequency and is significantly increasing tensions on the Korean peninsula,” Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff also said in a statement that the launch likely involved an intercontinental ballistic missile.
South Korea’s presidential office said it had called an emergency security meeting to discuss the North Korean launch.
If confirmed, it would be North Korea’s first launch of an ICBM missile in a two-week period.
Independent experts said an ICBM, still under development, launched by Pyongyang on November 3 failed to make its planned flight.
North Korea has two types of ICBMs, the Hwasong-14 and Hwasong-15, and launch tests in 2017 showed they could reach parts of the United States.
Already on Thursday, the Kim Jong-un regime had fired a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan.
The launches coincide with the visit of the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, to neighboring South Korea and come after the Pyongyang regime fired some thirty missiles in early November in response to joint air exercises between Seoul and Washington.
Source: TSF
