Tokyo, 19 October, /AJMEDIA/
North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan on Tuesday, Japanese authorities said, with the South Korean military saying one that was launched is presumed to be a short-range submarine-launched ballistic missile.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called the launch “extremely regrettable” while a government spokesman in Tokyo said analysis was ongoing on whether the missiles landed within Japan’s exclusive economic zone. There were no reports of harm caused to aircraft or ships.
However, there was conflicting information on the number of missiles launched, with South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff saying only one missile was fired from waters in Sinpo on North Korea’s eastern coast at around 10:17 a.m.
South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported the projectile flew around 430 to 450 kilometers and reached an altitude of about 60 km.
North Korea last test-fired an SLBM in October 2019, from Wonsan, also in the country’s east. North Korea has a submarine-building shipyard in Sinpo.
The country had put a new type of SLBM in military parades in 2020 and this year, as well as at a defense exhibition held earlier this month.
The Japanese government spokesman, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihiko Isozaki, strongly condemned North Korea’s continued test-firing of ballistic missiles as “threatening the peace and safety of Japan and the region” and violating U.N. Security Council resolutions.
North Korea has test-fired a series of missiles in recent weeks. On Sept. 15 it launched two short-range ballistic missiles, the first such tests in nearly six months, and on Sept. 28 it launched what state-run media said was a newly developed hypersonic missile.
Tuesday’s launch came as the top North Korea envoys of Japan, the United States and South Korea were slated to meet in Washington.
Takehiro Funakoshi, head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, spoke by phone with Sung Kim, U.S. special representative for North Korea, and agreed to keep up trilateral cooperation.
Kishida, who was in northeastern Japan’s Fukushima city to kick off campaigning for the Oct. 31 general election, told reporters he instructed his government to confirm the safety of nearby ships and aircraft and prepare for contingencies.
He had been slated to go to Akita Prefecture but cut the trip short to return to Tokyo. The premier is arranging to hold a meeting of the National Security Council to discuss Tokyo’s response, a government source said.