Same player, shoots again. North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Friday that fell off the coast of Japan, the latest in a record slew of projectile launches in recent weeks, as Seoul, Tokyo and Washington expect an imminent nuclear test by Pyongyang.
The South Korean general staff “detected an alleged long-range ballistic missile launched around 10:15 a.m. from the Sunan area in Pyongyang towards the East Sea”, he said, referring to the name Korean from the Sea of Japan.
Tokyo said the missile had traveled about 1,000 km and that Japanese forces had not attempted to destroy it in flight. Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada indicated that the projectile had reached a maximum altitude of 6,000 km, and concluded that it was an “ICBM-class ballistic missile, although other details are being analyzed.
“The ballistic missile launched by North Korea appears to have fallen into our exclusive economic zone off Hokkaido”, the large island in the north of the Japanese archipelago, said Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
“Acts of provocation”
This is not the first time that a North Korean projectile has ended its course in the Japanese exclusive economic zone (EEZ), that is to say the maritime space which extends up to 200 nautical miles ( 370 km) beyond the coasts of a State, between territorial waters and international waters. North Korea “repeats acts of provocation with unprecedented frequency. We strongly reiterate that this is absolutely unacceptable”, denounced Mr. Kishida.
On November 3, North Korea had already launched an ICBM but that launch had apparently failed, according to Seoul and Tokyo. The country had broken last March a moratorium that it had imposed on itself in 2017 on the launches of this type of long-range missile.
North Korea had already fired a short-range ballistic missile on Thursday, hours after a warning from its foreign minister who had promised a “fierce” response to the strengthening of the security alliance between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington .
23 missiles in one day
North Korea carried out an unprecedented flurry of projectile launches in early November, including a missile that fell near South Korea’s territorial waters for the first time since the end of the Korean War in 1953 President Yoon denounced a “de facto territorial invasion”.
November 2 alone saw 23 North Korean missile launches, more than all of 2017, when leader Kim Jong Un and then-US President Donald Trump traded threats of nuclear war.
In September and October, Pyongyang had already carried out a copious series of firings, including that of a medium-range ballistic missile which had flown over Japan for the first time in five years.
Pyongyang justified its show of force in November by the “aggressive and provocative” attitude of Seoul and Washington, which at the same time carried out the largest aerial maneuvers ever carried out between them, including stealth planes and strategic bombers. .
Analysts say North Korea, which under UN resolutions is barred from launching ballistic missiles, has become emboldened by the likelihood of escaping any further UN sanctions due divisions in the Security Council where China and Russia block any American attempt in this direction.