According to sources inside the South Korean government, a Rodong missile that has flown 1,000 kilometers can land within two kilometers of its target. North Korea called the system a provocation that it says is only aimed at bolstering US military hegemony in the region. The three-stage Unha-3 rocket which North Korea used to send a satellite into space in 2012 was 30 meters (98 feet) long.
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America condemned the latest missile tests.
“These repeated attempted launches are in grave violation of the DPRK’s worldwide obligations under United Nations Security Council resolutions 1718 (2006), 1874 (2009), 2087 (2013), 2094 (2013) and 2270 (2016)”, the statement reads.
North Korea has also threatened a physical response once the location and time of THAAD’s installation was decided. Additionally, Pyongyang reacted sharply to the United States’ decision to list Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, under new sanctions.
According to the South Korean and Japanese announcements, one suspected Rodong missile lifted off from the North’s western Hwanghae Province and flew across the nation, before falling in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
The Japanese defence ministry said one missile landed inside its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the 200-nautical mile of ocean around a country.
“This missile landed incredibly close to Japan”, she told reporters.
“We strongly condemn it”, Japan’s Ambassador Koro Bessho told reporters after the council held an emergency meeting to discuss the launches, calling them “a new step” in North Korea’s development of nuclear and missile capabilities.
The council has repeatedly condemned North Korea’s missile launches, but a US-drafted statement circulated last month following an apparent submarine-launched missile test was bogged down in discussion with China.
The U.S. Strategic Command said it detected the simultaneous launch by the North of two missiles Wednesday morning, one of which exploded immediately after launch. Everyone interpreted that to mean defending land territory, but Japan could intercept a future North Korean test that approaches its EEZ. A nuclear missile threat from North Korea was named as the reason for stationing a THAAD unit on the permanent basis.
The launch, which was the first fired by North Korea directly into Japanese-controlled waters, drew an outraged response from Tokyo and ramped up tensions between the United States and South Korea.
“Without any reasonable ground, South Korea blindly blamed North Korea for having conducted the cyber attack”.
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Washington, which maintains strong economic and military ties with Japan and South Korea, also denounced the North’s most recent test. “This provocation only serves to increase the worldwide community’s resolve to counter [North Korea’s] prohibited activities, including through implementing existing U.N. Security Council sanctions”, said Gary Ross, a Pentagon spokesman and naval commander.
