North Korea on Wednesday fired three apparently ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan (called the East Sea in the two Koreas), according to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff. JCS).
The missile test, the 17th of its kind since the start of the year, comes a day after U.S. President Joe Biden completed an Asian trip in Tokyo that also took him to South Korea and which focused on addressing the Pyongyang’s arms challenges, among other matters.
The first of the launches took place around 6 am (local time, 6 pm on Tuesday in Brasília), and the other two took place a period of about 45 minutes later, according to the South Korean army, which also said all were fired from the Sunan area of the North Korean capital.
Japanese authorities also detected the launches and said the projectiles fell outside waters belonging to Japan’s exclusive economic space, according to state broadcaster NHK.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said his country “is compiling more details” of the launches and that his government “has given instructions to ensure the safety of ships throughout the area”.
In turn, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol also called a meeting of the National Security Council to review the latest North Korean test and try to determine what kind of missiles were launched.
The launches come after Pyongyang fired three missiles that were considered ballistic and short-range by the South on the 12th, also from the Sunan area of Pyongyang.
Washington, Seoul and Tokyo had been warning for weeks that they had detected Pyongyang’s preparations to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
Added to this is the fact that the regime has been preparing for months what would be its first nuclear test since 2017 in Punggye-ri, in the northeast of the country, where according to allies everything is ready and waiting for North Korean dictator Kim. Jong-un, choose the precise moment to detonate an atomic device.
During his visit to South Korea last weekend and his subsequent trip to Japan between Sunday and Tuesday, Biden stressed the need to increase deterrence on the Korean peninsula in the face of provocations from the North, although he also left the door. open for dialogue with Pyongyang.
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