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 a imminent nuclear test by Pyongyang.
The South Korean general staff “detected a suspected long-range ballistic missile launched at around 10:15 a.m. local time from the Sunan area in Pyongyang towards the East Sea”, he said. indicated by referring to the Korean name for the Sea of Japan.
Tokyo said the missile had traveled about 1,000 km and that Japan had not attempted to destroy it in flight. The Japanese Defense Minister, Yasukazu Hamada, indicated that the projectile had reached a maximum altitude of 6,000 km, and deduced that it was an “ICBM-class ballistic missile”, one of the most powerful in the North Korean arsenal.
“The ballistic missile launched by North Korea seems 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, denouncing an “absolutely unacceptable” shot. “.
A few hours later, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said it conducted a joint military exercise with the United States right after the shooting.
These maneuvers “reaffirm the firm will of Japan and the United States to respond to any situation […] and further strengthen the deterrence and response capabilities of the Japan-US alliance,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Shameless Violation”
The White House “strongly” condemned the North Korean shooting, which it said constitutes “a brazen violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions and unnecessarily raises tensions”.
In Bangkok, where an Asia-Pacific summit is being held, US Vice President Kamala Harris met urgently on Friday with Mr. Kishida, South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and the leaders of Canada, the Australia and New Zealand. “On behalf of the United States, I reaffirm our unwavering commitment to our Indo-Pacific alliances,” she said.
Ditto on the Canadian side: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the missile launch “reckless”.
“This is completely unacceptable and cannot continue,” he insisted to reporters.
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 missiles, capable according to military experts of reaching the continental territory of the United States.
The United States, South Korea and Japan have in recent months intensified their joint military maneuvers in the face of threats from North Korea. Seoul and Washington notably conducted the largest joint air exercises in their history in late October and early November.
But North Korea sees these shows of force as general rehearsals for an invasion of its territory or an attempt to overthrow the Kim Jong-un regime.
On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden asked his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to put pressure on North Korea to end the escalation and give up carrying out a nuclear test, as Washington and Seoul lend him the intention.
Nuclear test fears
Mr. Biden, his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol and Mr. Kishida also promised a “strong and firm” response on Sunday if Pyongyang carries out this test, which would be the first since 2017 and the seventh in its history.
The head of North Korean diplomacy, Choe Son-hui, replied that the strengthening of the military alliance between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington was “entering the situation on the Korean peninsula into an unpredictable phase”.
The stronger this alliance becomes, “the fiercer the DPRK’s military response will be,” Choe warned.
Pyongyang unleashed an unprecedented flurry of missile strikes in early November, one of which fell near South Korea’s territorial waters.
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 threatened each other with a nuclear apocalypse. .
In September and October, Pyongyang had already fired a copious salvo of projectiles, one of which had flown over Japan for the first time in five years.
Analysts say North Korea has become emboldened by the likelihood of escaping any further UN sanctions thanks to divisions in the Security Council, where China and Russia are now blocking any US attempts to do so.
If Moscow remains “faithful” to a “diplomatic” solution for the Korean peninsula, “the United States and its allies in the region […] prefer a different path […]as if they were testing the patience of Pyongyang,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov criticized on Friday.