North Korea fired a ballistic missile around 7:50 a.m. Wednesday, according to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff. While the U.S. says that North Korea doesn’t have such technology, some of security weapons experts say that North Korea might have the capability for short range missiles including Scud and Rodong Miles.
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“This is proof of North Korea’s ambition to attack its neighboring countries”, said senior level military officers in Seoul.
Japan’s defence ministry said the missile landed inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone. Japan also said its self-defence force would remain on alert in case of further launches.
The launch was “an unforgivable act of aggression that represents a grave threat to the security of Japan”, said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
One of the Rodong missiles is thought to have landed in Japanese waters after flying about 620 miles while the other exploded shortly after launch, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
Japan’s Defense Minister Gen Nakatani (C) speaks to the media regarding North Korea’s missile launch, in Tokyo, Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo August 3, 2016. After several failures, the North put its first satellite into space aboard a long-range rocket in December 2012, and conducted another successful satellite launch in February. “This is a clear violation of a United Nations resolution and we lodged a firm protest against North Korea”.
South Korea and the USA have agreed a deployment of the advanced Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system in the South, which is something the North strongly objects to.
North Korea has ratcheted up tensions with its neighbours by firing a missile into the Sea of Japan, the first to crash in Japanese waters in almost two decades.
Wednesday’s launches were the 13th round of missile tests by North Korea this year, or 29 launches in total.
Ms Richey-Allen said the U.S. commitment to defending allies like South Korea and Japan remains “ironclad”.
South Korea’s capital city and its adjacent metropolitan area can not be protected by the THAAD battery as its interceptors have a maximum range of 200 km Seongju is about 250 km away from the capital.
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Yun said that the North’s action might have considered the upcoming joint military exercise, and stressed that the communist country’s provocations have always had multiple indications.
