North Korea fired three ballistic missiles Monday morning, according to South Korea’s military.
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The U.S. commitment to the defense of South Korea and Japan remains “ironclad”, the official said, adding that the U.S.is prepared to work with allies and partners around the world to respond to further North Korean provocations and to defend itself and its allies from any attack or provocation. The launches were widely condemned, with a senior US administration official saying, “Today’s reckless launches by North Korea pose threats to civil aviation and maritime commerce in the region”.
In July, the North launched three missiles in a single day from the western region that flew across the country and into the sea off its east coast, flying about 500 km and 600 km (300-360 miles).
The launches came four days before the 68th anniversary of the establishment of the North Korean government and a day after a new law went into effect in South Korea aimed at documenting human rights abuses in the North.
In early August, another Rodong missile fired by North Korea also travelled about 1,000 kilometers, the longest-ever flight distance by that missile.
The defence ministry in Tokyo said the three missiles were estimated to have fallen into Japan’s maritime Exclusive Economic Zone. They landed in the Sea of Japan 125 to 155 miles west of Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s main islands, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said.
After the launch, South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe discussed the incident privately “and agreed to cooperate on monitoring the situation”.
“All three were launched nearly simultaneously and fell around the same spot, which shows North Korea’s missile capability has been steadily improving”, Inada said, expressing serious concern. The attendees there included President Vladimir Putin of Russian Federation and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan.
This comes just under two weeks after Pyongyang test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile.
In a statement, the United States said it “strongly condemns” the multiple launches, which came at a potentially embarrassing time for North Korea’s only real ally, China, which is now hosting the G20 summit in Hangzhou.
Xi also told Park that Beijing opposed the proposed deployment of a THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea, which Seoul and the United States have said is created to counter an increasing missile threat from North Korea.
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China says the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system is meant to spy on China, while Seoul and Washington say the system is intended exclusively to defend against North Korea’s missile threat. In June, after a string of failures, North Korea sent an intermediate Musudan missile more than 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) high in a test launch that outside analysts said showed progress in efforts to acquire the ability to strike US forces in the region. Xi also expressed his concern over the THAAD system, saying that “mishandling the issue is not conducive to strategic stability in the region, and could intensify conflicts”, Xinhua reported. It called them “grave violations” of a ban on all ballistic missile activity.
