North Korea had no comment through its state media about its latest missile launch but it continued to strongly criticize annual military drills between South Korea and USA that wrapped up on September 2.
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The single-stage, Rodong-class, mid-range missiles were fired from Hwangju province, North Korea, and flew about 620 miles before falling into waters off the country’s east coast, within Japan’s zone of defense.
Shortly after the missile launches, South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met on the sidelines of the G20 summit and agreed to cooperate on monitoring the situation, a Japanese statement said.
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.
Although the North’s intention remains unclear, a high ranking Japanese government official said that it could be trying to send message to leaders that the missiles’ striking range could even hit Hangzhou.
Such tests are fairly common when worldwide attention is turned to Northeast Asia, and this one comes as world leaders are gathering for the G-20 summit of advanced and emerging economies in the city of Hangzhou in eastern China.
It wasn’t immediately clear what type of missiles they were or how far they traveled.
“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.
Despite the friction, the meeting may have significance in renewing their resolve and conveying a united message against North Korea’s nuclear and missile program.
North Korea has a record of holding missile launches when it is on the agenda at meetings of world leaders.
The U.S. and South Korea were still investigating, but the launches were clearly a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions banning the North’s use of ballistic missile technology, the statement said. China has insisted that the THAAD is a problem that will have a very negative impact on the Korean Peninsula, in Northeast Asia and for world peace, and for South Korea itself.
This comes just under two weeks after Pyongyang test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile.
“Aside from China’s foreseen hospitality as the G20 host, the summit was meaningful in that the leaders managed to deliver a forward-looking attitude on the bilateral front and North Korea despite the THAAD discord”, another Seoul official said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
China’s Xinhua News Agency revealed that Xi conveyed his opposition to the THAAD plan, echoing Beijing’s repeated concerns about the American system’s impact on its own regional security interests.
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Park labelled North Korea´s continued provocations as a “challenge” to Seoul-Beijing ties, adding that security threats from Pyongyang were at an “unprecedented level”, South Korea´s Yonhap news agency said.
