“Today I’ll be meeting with (South Korean) President Park (Geun-hye) to reaffirm our unbreakable alliance and to insist that the worldwide community remains united so that North Korea understands its provocations will only continue to deepen its isolation”, Obama said at a regional leaders’ summit in Laos.
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The United States and Japan lodged a protest against yesterday’s test-firing and requested a meeting of the UN Security Council in NY.
North Korea’s development of its UN-proscribed nuclear and ballistic missile programs threatens the United States; our allies, Japan and the Republic of Korea; and our partners in the region.
“I think North Korea tried to send a message that ‘you may not expect peace on the Korean peninsula while ignoring us, and we will initiate any peace on the Korean peninsula, ‘” said North Korean defector and analyst Ahn Chan-il, with the World Institute for North Korean studies.
South Korea’s arms exports fell from US$3.6 billion in 2014 to US$3.4 billion a year ago.
In early August, another Rodong missile fired by North Korea also traveled about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), the longest-ever flight by that missile.
The Security Council will meet Tuesday to discuss the latest missile launches by North Korea at the request of the United States and Japan.
All three missiles Monday fell in Japan’s exclusive economic zone, the 200-nautical mile offshore area where a nation has sovereign rights for exploring and exploiting resources, according to Tokyo’s Defense Ministry.
The submarine-based ballistic missile launch last month prompted even sharper expressions of concern.
Obama added that the US had not closed off the possibility for dialogue with North Korea, if it were to change course.
A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor is launched during a successful intercept test, in this undated handout photo provided by the U.S. Department of Defense, Missile Defense Agency. But they point to a mid-range ballistic missile test in June as evidence of a steadily advancing ability to reach U.S. forces stationed in the region. After the United Nations Security Council in March unanimously approved perhaps the toughest set of punitive measures imposed on the North in two decades, the North appeared to ramp up its missile tests. North Korea had agreed in 2007 to suspend activity there.
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The next president might face a similar urgency to go beyond simply taking note of North Korea’s progress in developing destabilizing weapons systems.
