The U.S. said it and Japan have requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss the missile launch.
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Wednesday’s test-firing is believed to be aimed at hindering the foreign ministers’ meeting among Japan, China and South Korea held on the same day in Tokyo, as well as a joint drill by USA and South Korean forces that kicked off Monday.
TENSIONS IN KOREAS: Rattling nerves in northeast Asia, North Korea fired a ballistic missile from a submarine early Wednesday.
Missiles of such capability could also potentially strike parts of Japan, including US military bases on the island of Okinawa, considering the operational range of North Korea’s Sinpo-class submarines, which could move close to 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) underwater at a time, said analyst Kim Dong-yub at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies.
Current UN resolutions prohibit North Korea from any use of ballistic missile technology, but Pyongyang has continued to carry out numerous launches following its fourth nuclear test in January. North Korea usually responds to the regular South Korea-US military drills with weapons tests and fiery, warlike rhetoric.
The test-firing came as tensions heightened on the Korean peninsula after South Korea and the United States started annual war games, the military said.
North Korea already has a variety of land-based missiles that can hit South Korea and Japan, including US military bases in those countries. It has been angered by what it views as provocative moves by the United States and South Korea, including their July decision to base the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence) anti-missile system in South Korea.
Relations between the three Asian economies are often hard with the legacy of Japan’s wartime aggression affecting ties between it and China and South Korea, territorial disputes hurting links between Japan and China, and Japan and South Korea.
Welcoming Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to attend the upcoming G20 summit in China, Wang said that Japan is an important member of G20.
People pass by a TV news program showing a file footage of North Korea’s ballistic missile that the North claimed to have launched from underwater, at Seoul Railway station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016. Nor.
Beijing is Pyongyang’s main ally but has joined past U.N. Security Council resolutions against the North.
About 28,500 USA troops are based in South Korea to help deter potential aggression from North Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
China is willing to make joint efforts with Japan to abide by the principles defined in the four political documents agreed between the two countries to consolidate the political basis for bilateral relations, Wang said.
“I think it’s meant foremost as a demonstration of sheer technical capability and a demand for status and respect”, Pollack said. The U.S. Strategic Command said it tracked the North Korean submarine launch of the presumed KN-11 missile into the Sea of Japan.
South Korea believes the North has a fleet of more than 70 ageing, limited-range submarines – a mix of Chinese, Russian and locally made boats.
The three countries have quarreled on a number of issues, and their foreign ministers’ meetings resumed only last year after a two-year hiatus because of strained Chinese-Japanese relations.
“I hope to coordinate closely in order for Japan, China and South Korea to lead the efforts of the global community”, he said.
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The launch also comes at a time of intensified animosities between the rival Koreas over the defection of a senior North Korean diplomat in London and a USA plan to install a sophisticated missile defence system in South Korea.
