North Korea test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile yesterday that flew 311 miles towards Japan.
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“Through the test results [North Korea] has become a premier military power with flawless nuclear strike capability”, Kim reportedly said.
The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement following the launch that the North was clearly bent on escalating tensions and that the latest test posed a “serious challenge” to security on the Korean peninsula.
The KCNA said the test-fire was conducted under a high-angle fire system using a solid fuel engine.
North Korea fired a submarine-launched missile on Wednesday that flew more than 310 miles (500 km) toward Japan, an indication of improving technological capability for the isolated North Asian country that has conducted a series of missile launches in defiance of United Nations sanctions.
North Korea already has land-based missiles that can hit South Korea and Japan, including USA military bases in those countries.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency cited a military source as saying Wednesday’s launch had been made at an acute angle to limit the missile’s range.
The KCNA said Kim watched from an observation post as the test-firing happened, which the agency said was carried out without “any adverse impact” on neighboring countries.
The upcoming bilateral meeting will be the seventh talks between Seoul and Tokyo that have taken place on an annual basis since 2006, with some exceptions in 2008, 2010, 2013 and 2014.
Wang also told his South Korean counterpart that China is “resolutely opposed” to the US deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile battery on South Korean soil.
Many outside experts say North Korea doesn’t yet have a functioning long-range nuclear missile capable of reaching the continental USA, but they acknowledge that the North has been making steady progress in its weapons programs and could one day develop such a weapon.
Japanese Prime Minister Shizo Abe denounced the missile launch as an “unforgivable” threat to regional security, in remarks published in multiple media on Wednesday.
Malaysia’s U.N. Ambassador Ramlan Bin Ibrahim, the current council president, told reporters after the closed meeting that “there was a general sense of condemnation by most members of the council”.
South Korea and Japan will hold a finance ministers’ meeting this weekend to discuss various economic and financial topics, the finance ministry here said Thursday.
Seoul believed the DPRK’s SLBM technology has progressed compared with previous launches as the military has allegedly regarded the flight of more than 300 km as successful.
The test is believed to be in retaliation for the annual military exercises between South Korea and the US, and has little to do with the trilateral meeting, analysts said.
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The U.N. Security Council agreed at an emergency meeting late Wednesday to consider issuing a statement on the latest North Korean missile launch.
