North Korea has fired a ballistic missile from a submarine off its east coast, say the USA and South Korea, BBC reports.
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Dr. Daniel A. Pinkston, a professor at Troy University, told CNN the fact that the rocket traveled as far as it did suggests the North Koreans are “making quite rapid progress, and probably more rapid progress than any people had predicted”.
China hopes South Korea and China can meet each other half way and find an appropriate resolution that both sides can accept, Wang added.
It comes as the state’s southern neighbour holds joint military exercises with the U.S., which the North insists is preparation for an invasion. The allies refute the claim and say the exercise is purely defensive in nature. Washington and Seoul insist the exercises are defensive in nature and created to ensure readiness.
At around 5:30 a.m., North Korea test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile from the vicinity of the eastern port city of Sinpo, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The presidential office also held an emergency standing committee session of the National Security Council, just hours after the SLBM test-fire.
The diplomatic event, as well the North’s provocation, came on the second day of the Ulchi Freedom Guardian, a Korea-US joint military exercise, to which North Korea has strongly protested and vowed retaliatory action.
The missile was sacked at a high angle, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported, an indication that its full range would be 1,000km at an ordinary trajectory.
The missile is said to have been fired shortly before 6am local time Wednesday (about 10pm Irish time on Tuesday).
The South Korean military said the missile flew about 500 kilometers and reached Japan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) before falling into waters controlled by Japan, a trajectory that shows the North has made strides in its SLBM technology over the past few years.
They also agreed that the North’s latest missile test-fire is a provocation that can not be tolerated.
The US Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) late last night said its systems detected and tracked what was assessed as a North Korean submarine missile launch at 3:29 PM CDT on August 23, 2016.
Under Security Council resolutions, aimed partially at curbing North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons, the communist country is prohibited from carrying out ballistic missile launches.
Jeffrey Lewis of the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies said the test appeared to be a success.
“The fact that the SLBM flew about [310 miles] suggests that North Korea is nearing the stage of completion for the weapon”, he said.
The missile is presumed to be a KN-11, said Navy Cmdr.
Beijing’s reported reluctance to further reprimand Pyongyang may be related to its increasingly strained relations with Seoul and Washington over the deployment of the American THAAD missile defense system in South Korea.
This comes amid the annual joint military exercise between United States and South Korea, which kicked off on Monday.
He also said that the three ministers discussed the situation on the Korean peninsula.
Yun promised South Korea’s support to realise a trilateral summit by year’s end, as well as to cooperate economically and to achieve a successful summit of the Group of 20 big economies next month in China.
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The joint drills, which began Monday and continue through September 2, involve more than 25,000 US servicemembers and 50,000 South Korean forces.
