Since the start of this year, North Korea has been at the center of global attention in view of its active missile testing.
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(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon). South Korean firefighters wearing protective gears move during an anti-terror drill as part of Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise, at Yoido Subway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2016. “I hope to coordinate closely in order for Japan, China and South Korea to lead the efforts of the global community”, he said.
Ulchi Freedom involves about 80,000 United States and South Korean troops in a largely computer-simulated defence of South Korea from a fictional North Korean invasion.
The South Korean military said that the SLBM is estimated to be capable of flying more than 2,000 km.
The foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea put aside frictions over territorial disputes and wartime history to sharply criticize North Korea’s latest submarine missile test on Wednesday in a rare display of unity.
“Operating from the Sea of Japan, such a submarine could launch one or two missiles – probably with nuclear warheads – against targets anywhere in Japan”, he said.
North Korea is considered to be in the early stages of developing submarine based missile launch capability.
The South Korean government urges North Korea “to abandon its nuclear and missile development immediately, verifiably and irreversibly”, the statement also said, making clear that Seoul will make “every effort” into tightening worldwide sanctions and pressure on North Korea.
North Korea conducted an apparently successful submarine-launched missile test on August 24, 2016, days after threatening a nuclear strike in retaliation at the start of large-scale South Korea-US military exercises. Kim said the launch effectively arms the country with fully-equipped nuclear attack capability and puts the USA mainland within its striking distance. Weapon experts say that if North Korea’s land-based arsenal is destroyed, the country would still be able to launch missiles from the sea.
Wang also told his South Korean counterpart that China is “resolutely opposed” to the US deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile battery on South Korean soil.
The missile fired from a submarine off the eastern North Korean coastal town of Sinpo reached into Japan’s air defense identification zone, according to Seoul and Tokyo officials.
The US mainland and its “operational theater in the Pacific” are now within North Korea’s “striking range”, KCNA quoted Kim as saying.
North Korea has become further isolated after a January nuclear test, its fourth, and the launch of a long-range rocket in February which brought tightened United Nations sanctions.
Malaysia’s U.N. Ambassador Ramlan Bin Ibrahim, the current council president, told reporters after the closed meeting that “there was a general sense of condemnation by most members of the council”.
The South Korean government and experts said the launch showed technical progress in the North’s SLBM programme.
The THAAD BMD system that the U.S. wants to deploy to South Korea would enhance protection against North Korean land-based missiles.
In July, Seoul and Washington made a decision to place the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) on South Korean soil by the end of 2017 in a bid to counter North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats.
The United States has requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council along with Japan on the latest Democratic People’s Republic of Korea missile launch.
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At the same time, it warned Japan and South Korea to “abandon the Cold War mentality and view the peaceful rise of China as vigor to regional development”, while avoiding “being the tools for some countries outside the region to undermine regional stability”.
