North Korea yesterday fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea after vowing to remain the biggest “threat” to the US and branding US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as a “toxin.”
It was the latest in a series of short-range missile tests that Pyongyang has carried out over the past few weeks in protest against US-South Korean military drills, which it sees as a rehearsal for an invasion. The latest joint exercise finished on Tuesday last week.
“The military detected two unidentified projectiles presumed to be short-range ballistic missiles,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement yesterday.
Photo: AP
The missiles flew about 380km and reached an altitude of 97km at a top speed of Mach 6.5 before landing in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, it said.
“Our military is tracking the movement in the North in case of additional launches, with firm readiness,” it added.
The Blue House convened a meeting of the South Korean National Security Council (NSC) and expressed “grave concerns” in a statement, saying that North Korea had carried out the launch after the joint US-South Korea military drills ended.
“Members agreed to continue diplomatic efforts with the international community to bring North Korea back to the negotiation table with the US to achieve the goal of complete denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.”
Tokyo also believed that North Korea fired “ballistic missiles” in breach of UN resolutions, Japanese Minister of Defense Takeshi Iwaya told reporters.
“It can’t be overlooked no matter what the size and distance are,” he said.
Washington is monitoring the situation following reports of a missile launch, a US official said.
“We are consulting closely with our Japanese and South Korean allies,” the official added.
The South Korean military said it would share intelligence on the launches with Japan, despite Seoul saying earlier this week that it was terminating such exchanges amid a growing diplomatic and trade spat with its neighbor, which had raised concern that it could weaken the tracking of Pyongyang’s actions by the two nations.
US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun earlier this week said during a visit to Seoul that Washington was “prepared to engage” as soon as it hears from Pyongyang.
However, on Friday, North Korea vowed in a statement by North Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Ri Yong-ho to “remain as the biggest ‘threat’ to the US” if Washington persisted with sanctions.
Ri also called Pompeo a “diehard toxin.”
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