North Korea fired another ballistic missile into South Korean waters on Thursday, the third test this week as US military exercises with South Korea, which Pyongyang views as a threat, continue.
According to South Korean authorities, the launch of Pyongyang’s latest missile also occurred hours before South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol traveled to Tokyo for a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, aimed at mending strained relations and consolidate trilateral security cooperation with the United States. to counter threats from North Korea.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launch of the North Korean missile took place this morning, but did not provide further details, such as the distance it traveled before landing in South Korean territorial waters.
Japan’s Defense Ministry said the missile was fired from a North Korean coastal area and was expected to land in the sea an hour later, some 550 kilometers off North Korea’s east coast and outside the Economic Zone. . ZEE) Japanese.
Pyongyang has already conducted two tests this week, firing cruise missiles from a submarine and also launching short-range ballistic missiles from its territory at a target in the eastern sea.
The weapons tests were expected as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un last week ordered the military to stand ready to repel what he called “frantic war preparation exercises” by his country’s adversaries.
Joint US-South Korean military exercises, which Pyongyang views as a rehearsal for an invasion, began Monday and are expected to continue until March 23, including computer simulations and live-fire ground exercises.
Last year, Pyongyang tested more than 70 missiles, including some nuclear-capable, to attack South Korea, Japan and the mainland United States, saying many of those tests were warnings after joint US-South Korean military drills. .
The South Korea-Japan summit came after the Yoon government last week took an important step to mend strained bilateral relations since Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945.
Chairman Yoon’s executive stated that he would use local funds to compensate Korean citizens subjected to industrial slave labor during the Japanese colonial period without contributions from the Japanese companies that employed them.
The plan, which has drawn strong domestic opposition, reflects the Yoon government’s determination to improve relations with Japan and boost security cooperation between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington.
Under Kishida’s rule, Tokyo also made a major break with its post-World War II principle of self-defense alone, adopting a new national security strategy in December that includes goals of acquiring pre-emptive strike weapons and cruise missiles to counter the growing threats from North Korea, China and Russia.
Source: TSF
