In recent weeks, Pyongyang has maintained a daily barrage of nuclear strike threats against both Seoul and Washington, ostensibly over continuing large-scale South Korea-US military drills that North Korea sees as provocative rehearsals for invasion.
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Analysts in South Korea said the medium-range missile launch last Friday may have been a test of the re-entry technology.
It was reasonable that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned North Korea and said Japan would respond decisively while working closely with the global community.
North Korea often fires missiles at periods of tension on the Korean peninsula or when it comes under pressure to curb its defiance and abandon its weapons programme.
Also Monday, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy Sung Kim and Kim Hong Kyun, South Korea’s special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, held talks in Seoul on the sanctions.
The projectiles were fired from the North Korean city of Hamhung, in South Hamgyong Province, located about 170 miles from Seoul, the South Korean capital.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the missile was likely a medium-range Rodong missile.
For the sixth time since 2006, North Korea has received yet another tough sanction for the same offense – test fiiring atomic devices.
Under U.N. resolutions, North Korea is banned from launching ballistic missiles.
Meanwhile, the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University suggested that North Korea could carry out another nuclear test at any time.
Earlier this month, the 15-nation Council adopted a resolution to impose a new raft of sanctions on North Korea to curb its nuclear and missile programs.
A unanimous statement from the UN’s most powerful body, after an urgent meeting called by the United States, reiterated its demand that North Korea comply with council resolutions prohibiting all ballistic missile activity.
A man watches a TV screen showing file footage of the missile launch conducted by North Korea, at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea on Friday.
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The launch was confirmed by USA officials.
