Pyongyang has launched a projectile into the Sea of Japan, the South Korean military said
FILE PHOTO: A man watches a television showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a railway station in Seoul on June 15, 2023. © Anthony Wallace / AFP
North Korea launched a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan on Wednesday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. The reported show of force comes after Pyongyang had accused the US of flying a spy aircraft over its exclusive economic zone.
The launch was confirmed by Tokyo. The missile, which was fired around 10 am local time, is expected to fall into the sea 550 kilometers (341 miles) east of the Korean Peninsula, Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said, as cited by Kyodo News.
On Monday, Kim Yo-jong, Pyongyang’s senior foreign policy official and the sister to the country’s leader Kim Jong-un, promised “clear and resolute” repercussions against Washington. She said that jets were scrambled to ward off an American warplane that was detected inside the DPRK’s 200 nautical mile economic zone.
The reported demonstration takes place as South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have both left for a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. The leaders will meet on the sidelines of the event on Wednesday.
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Pyongyang insists that missile launches are its response to joint US-South Korean military exercises, which it views as a rehearsal of an invasion. The US, meanwhile, accuses North Korea of dangerous escalation and maintains that such weapons tests are illegal under international law.
