South Korean and Japanese authorities on Friday denounced the launch of a North Korean ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan, known as the East Sea in the region, after it launched another ballistic missile the day before.
The South Korean military has indicated that it has indications that Pyongyang has launched a long-range ballistic missile, Yonhap news agency reported.
The Japanese Defense Ministry has indicated that it is gathering information to see if there is any impact of the missile in Japan, reports Japanese public television NHK.
The missile launch comes as the South Korean and U.S. defense ministries have established a dedicated missile policy advisory body known as the Consultative Missile Response Policy Group (CMWG) in Seoul, Yonhap reports.
The aim of the body is to lay the groundwork for «deeper» policy coordination on ballistic missiles in the wake of rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula, «with frequent and unprecedented missile provocations.»
North Korea warned the United States on Thursday that it would take «fiercer» military action in the event of continued military activities with Seoul and Tokyo in the region, the state agency KCNA reported.
«The more enthusiastic the U.S. is in the ‘enhanced offer of extended deterrence’ with its allies and the more it intensifies provocative and boastful military activities on the Korean peninsula, the fiercer the military reaction of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) will be in direct proportion to it,» North Korean Minister Choe Son Hui said.
This new test by Pyongyang further escalates tensions in the region after North Korea has in recent weeks launched dozens of ballistic missiles in tests banned by UN Security Council resolutions, in response to US-North Korean military maneuvers which it considers an invasion rehearsal.
The United States, as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has shared its evidence that North Korea is «likely» to conduct a nuclear missile test, its first since 2017, after noting an escalation of tension in recent weeks.
