A news programme reporting on a North Korean missile test is seen in a railway station in Seoul on Feb 18, 2023. - AFP
Tokyo, Feb 18, 2023 (AFP): A suspected ballistic missile fired from North Korea on Saturday is believed to have landed within Japan's exclusive economic zone, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said.
"It appears the ballistic missile fired by North Korea landed within Japan's EEZ, west of Hokkaido," Kishida told reporters.
Japan's deputy defence minister Toshiro Ino earlier said the missile was expected to land about 200 kilometres (125 miles) west of Oshima island in northern Japan's Hokkaido at approximately 6:27 pm (0927 GMT).
Kishida said he had "instructed (officials) to provide information to the public and thoroughly check the safety situation".
Last November, a missile fired by Pyongyang was also believed to have landed in Japan's EEZ as North Korea carried out an unprecedented volley of launches.
Earlier it was reported that North Korea fired at least one unspecified ballistic missile on Saturday, said South Korea’s military. Pyongyang’s first test in seven weeks comes days before Seoul and Washington are due to start joint tabletop exercises.
Seoul’s military said it had detected the launch of “a presumed long-range ballistic missile fired into the East Sea from Pyongyang’s Sunan area, around 17.22 (4.22pm Singapore time)”, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.
“The South Korean military maintains a full readiness posture while closely cooperating with the US and strengthening surveillance and vigilance,” it added in a statement.
Tokyo also confirmed the launch, with the coast guard saying the suspected ballistic missile had now landed, without giving details of exactly where.
Japan’s Vice-Defence Minister Toshiro Ino said it was likely to fall “in the Sea of Japan within the exclusive economic zone of Japan, approximately 200km west of Oshima, Hokkaido, at around 18.27 (5.27pm Singapore time)”.
Military tensions have risen on the Korean peninsula after a year in which North Korea declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear state, and carried out sanctions-busting weapons tests nearly every month, including firing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
In response, Seoul has ramped up joint military drills with key security ally Washington, in a bid to convince the increasingly nervous South Korean public of the United States’ commitment to deter Pyongyang.
At the tabletop exercise next week in Washington, the two allies are set to discuss how they would respond to the use of nuclear weapons by Pyongyang.
The exercise will focus on “joint planning, joint management and joint response with Washington’s nuclear assets” in case of a nuclear attack by Pyongyang, a South Korean Defence Ministry official told Agence France-Presse on Friday.
Pyongyang on Friday threatened an “unprecedentedly” strong response to upcoming US-South Korea drills, describing them as preparations for war.
An Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies, said the latest launch indicated North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “has finally pulled out his sword”.
“North Korea has warned of retaliation over the upcoming US-South Korea drills,” he told AFP, adding: “Kim Jong Un seems to want to confront the issue with a tit-for-tat approach.”
South Korea’s hawkish President Yoon Suk Yeol, who took office in May 2022, has vowed to get tough on North Korea and is pushing to beef up America’s so-called extended deterrence, under which US nuclear assets offer protection to regional allies.
Earlier this week, South Korea called Pyongyang its “enemy” in a defence document – the first time in six years it has used the term, signalling a further hardening of Seoul’s position.
North Korea has also ramped up its testing, including firing a ballistic missile in 2022 that landed south of the de facto maritime border near South Korea’s territorial waters for the first time since the end of the Korean War in 1953. Its last test was on Jan 1.
In December, it sent five drones across the border into Seoul’s airspace, including skies near its presidential office.
Pyongyang has repeatedly said it is not interested in further talks, and Mr Kim recently called for an “exponential” increase in his country’s nuclear arsenal.
At a military parade in Pyongyang last week, North Korea showed off a record number of nuclear and ICBMs, including what analysts said was possibly a new solid-fuelled ICBM.
The weapons on show included at least 10 of the North’s largest Hwasong-17 ICBMs, as well as vehicles apparently designed to carry a solid-fuelled ICBM.
North Korea has long sought to develop a solid-fuel ICBM because such missiles are easier to store and transport, are more stable and quicker to prepare for launch, and thus harder for the US to detect and destroy pre-emptively. - AFP
