North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) today at a time marked by South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s participation in the NATO summit and renewed regional tensions after Pyongyang threatened to respond to alleged intrusions. Washington Airways.
seoul “detected the launch of what is believed to be a long-range ballistic missile made towards the East Sea (the name given to the Sea of ​​Japan in the two Koreas) from the Pyongyang area at 10:00 (1:00 GMT) today,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) reported in a statement.
The projectile “fIt was launched at a very wide angle and landed in the East Sea after flying about 1,000 kilometers“added the military command of Seoul.
For their part, the Japanese authorities indicated that the projectile would have fallen in waters outside the Japanese Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) at around 11:15 local time (2:15 GMT).
The last time Pyongyang launched an ICBM was on April 13, when it fired a Hwasong-18, its first long-range ballistic missile using solid fuel, more efficient than liquid.
This launch coincides with the participation of the South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, in the summit held in Vilnius (Lithuania) by NATO, with which Seoul has just expanded its cooperation framework.
MEETING OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL
In fact, Yoon today chaired an emergency meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) in Vilnius on the occasion of this latest North Korean weapons test and stressed that Pyongyang “will pay a price for its illegal actions.”
He also urged strengthening the so-called “extended deterrence” mechanism. agreed with the United States, as detailed by the South Korean Presidential Office in a statement.
The so-called extended or extended deterrence is a commitment adopted by Washington to deploy US strategic assets on a rotating and temporary basis with the intention of having a deterrent effect on the North Korean regime.
The Government of Japan considered that the last North Korean test “violates UN resolutions”, and said that it has transferred a “forceful protest” for it to North Korea through its embassy in Beijing, explained the spokesman for the Japanese Executive, Hirokazu Matsuno, at a press conference.
The North Korean launch also comes after Pyongyang this week accused US reconnaissance aircraft of carrying out aerial “intrusions.”
MESSAGE FROM KIM YO-JONG
Kim Yo-jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong-un, said that on Monday a US spy plane flying over the North Korean EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) first withdrew before the departure of KPA fighters and then returned. to continue carrying out reconnaissance work, reaching about 400 kilometers from the southeastern coast of the country.
Kim warned that “the US military will experience very dangerous traffic” in the area if a similar situation occurs again.
The EEZ are the waters that extend up to 200 nautical miles (about 370 kilometers) from the coasts of a country, which has the right to explore and exploit them.
However, flying or navigating through these waters does not, in principle, require any permit and therefore cannot be considered an “intrusion” or “an infringement of North Korean sovereignty”as Pyongyang argues.
Some experts believe that Kim Yo-jong’s harsh message and the convoluted nature of his arguments may come in response to the statements made a week ago by the South Korean army after finding the remains of a spy satellite launched by North Korea on the 31st of May that crashed into the Yellow Sea (called the East Sea in both Koreas) due to a failure of the carrier rocket.
The South Korean JCS said that “as a result of careful analysis by South Korean and American experts” He estimates that the device “has no military utility as a reconnaissance satellite”, possibly due to the low resolution of the images that it is capable of capturing compared to other satellites.
On previous occasions, the sister of the northern leader has responded with strong disqualifications when Seoul has publicly considered that Pyongyang’s technological level is low when it comes to certain military assets.