North Korea yesterday conducted its longest-ever weapons test — a nuclear-capable ballistic missile that flew over Japan and could reach the US Pacific territory of Guam and beyond, forcing the Japanese government to issue evacuation alerts and halt trains.
The South Korean and US militaries responded by launching fighter jets that fired weapons at a target off South Korea’s west coast in a show of strength against North Korea.
In Taipei, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said that Taiwan is concerned by and strongly condemns “yet another irresponsible action” by North Korea, which contravenes UN Security Council prohibitions and undermines regional peace and stability.
Photo: AFP / South Korean Ministry of National Defense
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) called Japan’s top envoy to Taiwan Hiroyasu Izumi early yesterday to convey the government’s and public’s support for Tokyo, Ou said.
As an important member of the Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan is willing to work with the international community on related measures and cooperate with like-minded countries to ensure regional peace and security, including on the Korean Peninsula, Ou said.
The missile launch was North Korea’s most provocative weapons demonstration this year, as it pushes to develop a fully fledged nuclear arsenal capable of threatening the US mainland and its allies with the goal of wresting concessions from those countries, some experts say.
Photo: AFP / South Korean Ministry of National Defense
Condemning the North’s “dangerous and reckless” action to launch what it described as a “long-range ballistic missile” over Japan, US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement: “The United States will continue its efforts to limit [North Korea’s] ability to advance its prohibited ballistic missile and weapons of mass destruction programs, including with allies and UN partners.”
South Korea and Japan earlier said the missile had an intermediate or longer range. The launch is the fifth round of weapons tests by North Korea in the past 10 days.
The testing spree is an apparent response to two sets of military drills — one between the US and South Korea, and the other involving Washington, Seoul and Tokyo — off the Korean Peninsula’s east coast last week.
Japanese authorities alerted residents in its northeastern regions to evacuate to shelters, in the first “J-alert” since 2017 when North Korea fired an intermediate-range Hwasong-12 missile twice over Japan in a span of weeks during a previous run of weapons tests.
Trains were suspended in the Hokkaido and Aomori regions until the government issued a notice that the North Korean missile appeared to have landed in the Pacific.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters that the launch “is a reckless act and I strongly condemn it.”
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said North Korea’s “reckless nuclear provocations” would meet a stern response from the South and the broader international community.
The military separately warned that North Korea’s repeated missile launches would deepen its international isolation and prompt Seoul and Washington to bolster their deterrence capacities.
Later yesterday, four US F-16 jets and four South Korean F-15s conducted a joint strike drill in which one of the South Korean planes fired two precision-guided joint direct attack munition bombs into an island target.
The exercise was aimed at demonstrating the allies’ ability to accurately strike North Korean targets with “overwhelming force,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The North Korean missile fired from its northern province bordering China traveled 4,500km to 4,600km at a maximum altitude of 970km to 1,000km, South Korean and Japanese estimates showed.
Japanese Minister of Defense Yasukazu Hamada said it landed in the Pacific about 3,200km off the northern Japanese coast and that there were no reports of damage to Japanese aircraft or ships.
Additional reporting by CNA
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique