“They are speculated to be Rodong missiles with a range of 1,000 kilometers [620 miles] and were fired without navigational warning to Japan”, the spokesman said in a statement.
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North Korea has a record of holding missile launches when it is on the agenda at meetings of world leaders.
“North Korea would get nothing from such provocations and they will only strengthen South Korea and the global community’s zero-tolerance policy on North Korea’s nuclear arsenal and determination for sanctions and pressure on the country”.
China has responded angrily to Seoul’s decision to base the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system south of Seoul.
“The United States strongly condemns North Korea’s launch of three ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan”.
North Korea must end its “illegal” ballistic missile program that only serves to worsen tensions in the region, the European Union said on Monday after Pyongyang’s latest missile launches. “Our military is fully prepared to deal with North Korean provocations”.
Numerous earlier missiles failed to launch or exploded in mid-air, but recent efforts have flown greater distances, leading experts to warn that Pyonyang is learning from its mistakes and making technical progress toward its stated goal of developing a nuclear weapon that could reach the US mainland. The Chinese object particularly to THAAD’s radar that would be positioned to scan a portion of Chinese territory as well as all of North Korea.
The presumed Rodong missiles were launched shortly after noon from the western town of Hwangju and traveled across the peninsula before landing some 250 miles inside Japan’s air defense identification zone, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. Pyongyang gave no notification of the launch.
The launch was widely condemned by the USA and other major powers but analysts saw it as a clear step forward for North Korea’s nuclear strike ambitions.
In past years, the North’s weaponry tests were characterized by failure, including missiles exploding in mid-air or wobbling and crashing well short of presumed targets.
DPRK is the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s formal name. “Those threats are coming closer each moment”.
South Korea announced the deployment of the missile system in July but it is not yet in operation. It called them “grave violations” of a ban on all ballistic missile activity.
So far, Pyongyang has shown no signs of heeding the worldwide community’s warnings and punishments.
The allegation, if true, would be a troubling development for China who as a member of the UN Security Council has taken an increasingly hawkish view towards their former ally in recent years voting in favor of sanctions against North Korea for each new missile launch – missiles that the American expert claims that China themselves provided. However, from a long-term perspective, the deployment of THAAD will even break the strategic balance in East Asia, especially between China and the USA, and Russian Federation and the U.S., which will pose a severe threat to regional security, said Zheng.
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The next president might face a similar urgency to go beyond simply taking note of North Korea’s progress in developing destabilizing weapons systems.
