The United States have asked North Korea to refrain from provocative actions as it strongly condemned the latter’s launch of three ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, even as G20 Summit in China was underway.
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Such tests are fairly common when global attention is turned to Northeast Asia, and this one comes as world leaders are gathering for the G-20 summit of advanced and emerging economies in the city of Hangzhou in eastern China.
Obama signaled the USA would redouble its effort to choke off North Korea’s access to global currency and technology by tightening loopholes in the current sanctions regime.
“Considering that China’s role is important in effectively implementing sanctions against the North and resolving its nuclear problem, South Korea and the US agreed to continue communication with China through various channels”, Park said during a joint press conference.
Japan’s Kyodo news agency said all three missiles Monday fell in Japan’s exclusive economic zone in the Sea of Japan, which the Koreas call the East Sea.
“And President Park and I agree that the entire worldwide community needs to implement these sanctions fully and hold North Korea accountable”.
Obama added that the US had not closed off the possibility for dialogue with North Korea, if it were to change course.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga called the launches a “serious threat” to Japanese security and said Tokyo protested to North Korea via the Japanese Embassy in Beijing. “North Korea needs to know that provocations will only invite more pressure and further deepen its isolation”. President Barack Obama at the Hague to discuss responding to the North’s arms programme.
At the G-20 meeting, South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met immediately and agreed to cooperate against North Korea.
The latest firing won’t help the push by Xi to get Park to scrap the planned deployment of a powerful USA anti-missile system in the South.
The latest missile test fire follows the recent launch of a KN-11 ballistic missile from a submarine.
These launches violate multiple UN Security Council Resolutions that prohibit North Korea’s launches using ballistic missile technology.
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It described them as “grave violations” of a ban on all ballistic missile activity.
