The United States will continue to work closely with South Korea and Japan, as well as the global community, to address North Korea’s provocative actions, the statement said.
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The main body of the projectile landed in Japan’s economic exclusion zone, Reuters reports, citing a Japanese defense official.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the United States “continues to be concerned about North Korea’s behavior and considers it critical to work with the worldwide community, including China and Russian Federation, to urge the North Korean government to stop the launches”.
Speaking after the U.N. Security Council met on North Korea’s missile launch on Wednesday, which landed in Japanese controlled waters for the first time, Power said the anti-missile system was to defend against the threat by North Korea.
Japan also said its self-defence force will remain on alert in case of further launches.
“Initial indications reveal one of the missiles exploded immediately after launch, while the second was tracked over North Korea and into the Sea of Japan”, a statement emailed to NK News by STRATCOM said.
Ms Power said the South Korea missile defence system was “purely defensive” and aimed exclusively at protecting the South Korean people and USA and other forces stationed there from North Korean ballistic missiles.
The missiles were launched from the western North Korean city of Hwangju and landed roughly 250 kilometers off the coast of Akita prefecture in Japan.
“The United States has crossed the red line in our showdown”, said Han Song Ryol, the ministry’s director-general of North Korea’s U.S. affairs department, in an interview with the Associated Press at the time.
He added Tokyo will “resolutely respond in cooperation with the United States and South Korea”.
The ballistic missile launch brought swift condemnation from the major governments of the region. There is the possibility that this time, North Korea was aiming to drop the missile in the EEZ.
Following that announcement, the Hermit Kingdom fired three ballistic missiles that had a range (between 300 and 360 miles) capable of reaching all of South Korea. The North’s state media later confirmed that it fired ballistic rockets carrying trigger devices for nuclear warheads as part of simulated pre-emptive atomic attacks on South Korea.
Last month, when South Korea and the USA agreed to deploy THAAD (Terminal high altitude area defense system).the decision infuriated North Korea, China, Russia and the melon farmers of Seong-ju. North Korea describes the drills as an invasion rehearsal.
North Korea-US tensions had already been stoked by Pyongyang’s fury at Washington’s recent decision to personally target leader Kim with sanctions related to human rights abuses.
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Now, with America obliged to act if Japan is attacked, the West could be sucked into war without a missile even reaching U.S. territory.
