“Absolutely Unacceptable”. This is how Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida qualified, Friday, November 18, the sending of a North Korean missile which could have fallen off the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
“The ballistic missile launched by North Korea seems to have fallen back into our EEZ [Zone économique exclusive] west of Hokkaido »Kishida told reporters from Thailand where he is attending an Asian summit.
The Japanese EEZ extends up to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from its coasts. Mr Kishida said no damage had been reported to ships or planes.
“We protested harshly to North Korea. [Celle-ci] repeats acts of provocation with unprecedented frequency. We strongly reiterate that this is absolutely unacceptable.”did he declare. “Japan, the United States and South Korea must coordinate closely to work towards the complete denuclearization of North Korea”he added.
‘Serious concerns’
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Thursday that he told Chinese President Xi Jinping of “serious concerns” on several regional security issues during their meeting in Bangkok.
South Korea’s military says Friday’s firing was that of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the latest in a record series of firings in recent weeks, as Seoul and Washington expect an imminent nuclear test of from Pyongyang.
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 has already fired a short-range ballistic missile on Thursday, hours after a warning from its foreign minister about strengthening the security alliance between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington. The United States, South Korea and Japan have indeed intensified their joint military maneuvers in recent months in the face of threats from North Korea, which sees these exercises as general rehearsals for an invasion of its territory or a reversal. of his diet.
The more Washington strives to strengthen its security alliance with Tokyo and Seoul, and “the fiercer the DPRK’s military response will be”said North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui.
During a meeting Tuesday on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, US President Joe Biden also tried to convince his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to intercede with North Korea so that it renounces carrying out a nuclear test, as Washington and Seoul lend him the intention.
Unprecedented burst
Mr. Biden, his South Korean counterpart Yoon Seok-youl and Mr. Kishida also promised a response on Sunday. “strong and firm” if Pyongyang carries out this test, which would be the first since 2017 and the seventh in its history. On Thursday, Mr. Choe condemned such meetings between leaders, saying they are “entering the situation on the Korean Peninsula into an unpredictable phase”.
North Korea carried out an unprecedented flurry of projectile launches in early November, including that of a ballistic missile that fell near South Korea’s territorial waters. 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 war threats nuclear. In September and October, Pyongyang had already carried out a copious series of firings, including that of a medium-range ballistic missile which, on October 4, had flown over Japan for the first time in five years.
The latest series of launches have been accompanied by artillery barrages near the inter-Korean demarcation line and wide-ranging aerial sorties in North Korean skies.
Analysts say North Korea, which under United Nations (UN) resolutions does not have the right to launch ballistic missiles, has grown bolder in the face of the likelihood of escaping any further sanctions from the UN because of divisions in the Security Council. China, Pyongyang’s main diplomatic and economic ally, joined Russia there last May to veto an attempt by the United States to tighten sanctions against North Korea.