PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. and the other leaders of member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) yesterday condemned North Korea’s firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile which reportedly landed west of Hokkaido in Japan.
“We join Japan, together with the rest of the ASEAN, in condemning the continued threat that the launching [of] ballistic missiles by the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] represents. As we speak on economic progress in our region, we found these aspirations on a peaceful and stable Indo-Pacific Region. So, such dangerous and provocative actions by the DPRK threaten and destabilize the region and the world,” the President said.
The Presidential Communications Office said the President made the remarks before he delivered a speech at the meeting of Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) leaders at the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo.
Marcos, in November last year during an ASEAN event in Cambodia, asked North Korea to comply with resolutions of the United Nations Security Council as he said the Philippines “reiterates its grave concerns over the series of missile launches conducted by the DPRK.”
Japan and South Korea said North Korea yesterday fired an intercontinental ballistic missile that has a range to hit anywhere in the United States, marking its second launch in hours as Pyongyang condemned a US-led show of force as “war” moves.
Monday’s missile launch came after North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile on Sunday night, flying about 570 km and falling into the ocean.
North Korea followed up that launch with a fiery statement condemning the United States for orchestrating what it called a “preview of a nuclear war,” including the arrival of a nuclear-powered submarine in South Korea on Sunday.
The missile fired Monday has a potential to travel more than 15,000 km (9,300 miles), meaning it can reach anywhere in Japan and the mainland United States, Japan’s Parliamentary Vice Minister of Defense Shingo Miyake said.
South Korea’s National Security Council said it was a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), labelling the launch a destabilizing act that ignored international warnings and multiple UN Security Council resolutions.
President Yoon Suk Yeol had ordered the upgrading of the effective operation of “nuclear deterrence” by South Korea and the United States, it added.
Coinciding with the North’s fifth ICBM launch of the year, China and North Korea held a high-level meeting in Beijing on Monday. Beijing, which is Pyongyang’s closest ally, reaffirmed a commitment to deepen cooperation and said discussions covered issues of “common concern,” without elaborating.
As a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, China supported all resolutions imposing sanctions on the North up to 2017 for its weapons development, but has since refused to back further sanctions saying these would only raise tensions.
Monday’s missile was fired from an area near the capital Pyongyang towards the sea off the North’s east coast and flew about 1,000 km, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
Japan’s defense ministry reported the flight lasted 73 minutes, just short of the 74-minute flight by an ICBM North Korea fired in July. It reached a maximum altitude of more than 6,000 km and fell into the sea west of Hokkaido outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, Japan said.
The area near the international airport serving Pyongyang is where the North previously launched ICBMs and is suspected to be the location of a missile assembly facility.
The North’s latest, solid-fuel Hwasong-18 ICBMs have been launched from near Pyongyang, at a grass field that analysts said is likely reinforced with concrete for the heavy launch vehicle.
US SUBMARINE VISITS SOUTH KOREA
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts and stressed the importance of sharing missile warning data, the White House said.
South Korea’s presidential office also said the officials discussed working closer to stop the North’s illicit cyber activities and illegal foreign businesses.
The allies have been working to set up a real-time missile data sharing system, but it is still “a few days” from going operational, South Korea’s defense ministry said.
On Friday, following a high-level meeting by US and South Korean officials on the use of US strategic military weapons to deter North Korea’s military threat, Washington warned any nuclear attack would lead to the end of the regime.
North Korea says it has a sovereign right to operate a ballistic missile program for self-defense and rejects a Security Council ban, which it says is a product of hostile US policy.
After Sunday’s launch, North Korea’s defense ministry criticized “military gangsters” in the United States and South Korea for raising tensions with drills, displays of force, and nuclear war planning.
The statement by an unnamed ministry spokesman cited the arrival of the US nuclear-powered submarine Missouri in the South Korean city of Busan on Sunday.
Visits by US nuclear submarines had previously been rare, but they have increased under agreements between Seoul and Washington that have boosted arrivals of US military assets.
The USS Carl Vinson, a US aircraft carrier, also visited Busan last month as part of an effort to increase deterrence against North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.
The North’s defense ministry also condemned the meeting by South Korean and US officials in Washington as another sign of efforts to streamline war preparations and a provocative show of force.
The United States and South Korea have increased the intensity of joint military drills against rising threats from the North, which had tested a range of ballistic missiles and in November launched its first military spy satellite. — With Reuters
