North Korea launched two ballistic missiles
into the sea near Japan on Thursday,
Japan’s prime minister said, fueling tension
ahead of the Tokyo Olympics and ramping up
pressure on the Biden administration as it
finalises its North Korea policy.
The missile launches highlight the threat
North Korea’s illicit weapons programme
poses to its neighbours and the international
community, the United States military’s Indo-
Pacific Command said in a statement.
The command said it was monitoring the
situation and consulting allies.
Japan lodged a formal protest through its
embassy in China and said the test
threatened peace and safety in the region,
while South Korea’s National Security Council
expressed deep concern.
Japan’s coastguard said the first missile was
detected soon after 7 a.m. and flew about
420 km (260 miles), followed by a second 20
minutes later that flew about 430 km (270
miles), indicating the missiles were short-
range weapons.
North Korea has previously test-fired missiles
over Japan that were able to carry nuclear
warheads and reach anywhere in the United
States.
“The first launch in just less than a year
represents a threat to peace and stability in
Japan and the region and violates U.N.
resolutions,” Japanese Prime Minister
Yoshihide Suga said in comments aired by
public broadcaster NHK.
The launches coincided with the start of the
Olympic torch relay in Japan on Thursday,
beginning a four-month countdown to the
summer Games in Tokyo which were delayed
from 2020 because of the coronavirus.
Suga said he would ensure a safe and secure
Olympics and “thoroughly discuss” North
Korea issues, including the launches, with
U.S. President Joe Biden during his visit to
Washington next month.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff earlier
reported at least two “unidentified projectiles”
were fired into the sea between the Korean
peninsula and Japan from North Korea’s east
coast.
South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies
were analysing the data of the launch for
additional information, the JCS said in a
statement.
South Korea’s presidential Blue House will
convene an emergency meeting of the
national security council to discuss the
launches.
There was no official comment from the
White House or State Department on the test.
North Korea has not tested a nuclear weapon
or its longest-range intercontinental ballistic
missiles (ICBMs) since 2017, ahead of an
historic meeting between leader Kim Jong Un
and former U.S. President Donald Trump in
2018.
The Biden administration is in the “final
stages” of reviewing its North Korea policy,
senior U.S. officials told Reuters this week.
Analysts have noted a change in wording
from the previous administration,
emphasising the “denuclearisation of North
Korea”, rather than the whole peninsula – a
more unilateral position likely to be anathema
to Pyongyang.
Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha
University in Seoul, said the North Korea
policy review would come within the context
of the administration’s strategy on China,
North Korea’s only major ally.
“North Korea’s military activities after
reaffirming ties with Beijing raise questions
about how China is complicit in sanctions
evasion and may be enabling the Kim
regime’s threats to the region. This will
increase calls in the U.S. and elsewhere to
sanction Chinese firms involved in illicit
trade,” he said.
Over the weekend North Korea fired two
short-range cruise missiles, U.S. and South
Korean officials said, but Biden brushed off
those tests as “business as usual” and
officials in Washington said they were still
open to dialogue with Pyongyang.
Vipin Narang, a nuclear affairs expert at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the
United States, said short-range ballistic
missile tests would be a “step up” from the
weekend test, and allow North Korea to
improve its technology and send a
proportionate response to recent U.S.-South
Korea military drills.
The test launches should not torpedo
diplomatic efforts but were a reminder of the
cost of the failure to secure a deal with
Pyongyang, he said.
“Every day that passes without a deal that
tries to reduce the risks posed by North
Korea’s nuclear and missile arsenal is a day
that it gets bigger and badder,” Narang said.
Biden’s diplomatic overtures to North Korea
have gone unanswered, and the North said it
would not engage until the United States
dropped hostile policies, including carrying
out military exercises with South Korea.
North Korea has continued to develop its
nuclear and missile programmes throughout
2020 in violation of U.N. sanctions dating
back to 2006, helping fund them with about
$300 million stolen through cyber hacks,
according to independent U.N. sanctions
monitors.
In early 2018, North Korea announced a
moratorium on testing nuclear weapons and
ICBMs, though it says it no longer feels
bound by that after negotiations with the
Trump administration faltered.
It has tested a number of new short-range
missiles that can threaten South Korea and
the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed there, most
recently in March 2020.
REUTERS
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