The new test is the third submarine-launched ballistic missile launched by North Korea this year.
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Jan said in the letter that the situation on the Korean Peninsula “has become unprecedentedly instable (cq) due to the introduction of nuclear strategic bombers, anti-ballistic missile system of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and other strategic assets by the U.S.to the Korean Peninsula and its vicinity”.
The U.S. -led U.N. Command Military Armistice Commission said it had notified the North Korean army that the exercises are “non-provocative” in nature.
The protest was transmitted through diplomatic channels through the Japanese Embassy in China, the agency said.
The United States and South Korea kicked off annual military exercises on Monday, prompting warnings of retaliation from the North, as already-heightened tension on the peninsula has been inflamed by the defection of a Pyongyang diplomat. “South Korea aggressive joint military exercises are totally halted”.
Local news agency Yonhap also quoted an unnamed government source as saying that several landmines reportedly laid by North Korea’s military were spotted last week in what “appears to be created to prevent its front-line servicemen from defecting”.
North Korea fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile off its east coast early on Wednesday, South Korea’s military said, the latest in a string of missile launches in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.
Japan called on all United Nations member-states to redouble their efforts to fully implement all resolutions including a measure adopted in March that imposed the toughest sanctions yet on North Korea.
“They keep conducting nuclear tests and SLBMs together which means they are showing they can arm SLBMs with miniaturized nuclear warheads”, said Moon Keun-sik, a retired South Korean navy officer and an expert in submarine warfare.
North Korea usually responds to the regular South Korea-U.S. military drills with weapons tests and fiery warlike rhetoric.
Though North Korea has aimed to improve its nuclear and missile capabilities, it has yet to pair the two successfully.
One missile launched this month landed in or near Japanese-controlled waters.
President Park said high-level defections pointed to cracks in the Kim regime.
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The launch also comes at a time of intensified animosities between the rival Koreas over the defection of a senior North Korean diplomat in London and a US plan to install a sophisticated missile defense system in South Korea.
