Malaysia today has condemned the ballistic missile launches conducted by North Korea on Monday.
Advertisement
Such tests are fairly common when worldwide attention is turned to Northeast Asia, and this one came as world leaders gathered in eastern China for the G-20 summit of advanced and emerging economies. The countries most affected by Pyongyang’s military tests are China, North Korea’s only major ally, and South Korea.
In the statement, the Council members also expressed serious concern about North Korea latest missile launches after a series of earlier ones, held intermittently on different occasions between 15 April and 22 August – in flagrant disregard of repeated Council statements.
The UN Security Council imposed new sanctions on North Korea in March after Pyongyang conducted a fresh nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch in violation of UN resolutions.
It said the recent launch was conducted successfully without harming the security of neighbouring countries or the global waters.
Most recently, the isolated nation test-fired three ballistic missiles into the East Sea in a new show of force days ahead of the 68th anniversary of its government’s establishment which falls on Friday.
The missiles likely landed in the sea 200 to 250 km (120 to 160 miles) west of Hokkaido, Japan’s northern-most main island, sources at Japan’s defense ministry said on Monday. Obama raised the issue in his meeting Saturday, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said.
The statement was adopted in an emergency meeting of the council, which was jointly called for by Japan, the United States and South Korea.
The ASEAN summit was followed by the ASEAN Plus Three summit, where President Park said she hopes Wednesday’s meeting can serve to strengthen momentum for cooperation among 13 Asian states.
Regarding the plan to station a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on the peninsula, Obama stressed that “it is a purely defensive measure, stressing that Washington’s commitment to the defense of South Korea is unwavering”.
China says the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system is meant to spy on China, while Seoul and Washington say the system is intended exclusively to defend against North Korea’s missile threat.
Advertisement
The camp, according to a China-based source who spoke to Newsis on the condition of anonymity, was built to keep North Korean refugees arrested in China. Last month, it successfully tested a submarine-launched missile and development of those missiles would add a weapon that is harder to detect before launch.
