The calm on the Korean peninsula has not lasted for long. Just after the G20 summit of world leaders held in Bali (Indonesia) ended, North Korea has briskly resumed its threats and the launching of projectiles towards the vicinity of its neighbors. The latest in consignment appears to be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) which, according to Tokyo, fell this Friday in the waters of the Japanese special economic zone.
The launch coincides with the presence in Seoul of the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, who yesterday visited the Samsung technology plant and today is scheduled to meet with the South Korean president, the conservative Yoon Suk Yeol.
Both Seoul and Tokyo detected the eastward launch of an apparently ballistic missile shortly after 10 a.m. (1:00 a.m. GMT). The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a later statement that the projectile had been fired into the East Sea (the name given to the Sea of Japan in the two Koreas) from the Sunan airport area, near Pyongyang.
Later, Japan's Defense Ministry said the shell landed about 200 kilometers west of the northern island of Hokkaido at around 11:20 a.m. local time (2:20 GMT), initially causing no damage. ICBMs are the longest-range weapon in the North Korean arsenal and are designed to carry nuclear warheads.
According to the Japanese Defense Minister, Yasukazu Hamada, today's projectile was capable of flying up to 15,000 kilometers and reaching US territory. For his part, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said it flew to a maximum altitude of 6,000 kilometers and traveled about 1,000 kilometers before falling into the sea about 200 kilometers west of Hokkaido.
It is common for Pyongyang to test missiles with "elevated" parabolic trajectories, in which the missile flies much higher in space but a shorter distance than it would if fired on a normal trajectory.
"It is intolerable that North Korea is repeating these provocative acts with an unprecedented frequency until now," criticized the Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, who is in Bangkok (Thailand) to participate in the meeting of the Asia-Pacific Cooperation Forum, from where he called a meeting of the National Security Council.
This new challenge comes after the leaders of South Korea, Japan and the US met to strengthen their alliance against the Kim Jong Un regime. It was last Sunday on the sidelines of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit held in Cambodia, where the trio agreed to strengthen their "extended deterrence" military maneuvers and seek to take "decisive measures" to achieve the denuclearization of the northern country, which would be preparing its seventh nuclear test (the first since 2017)
Yesterday, Thursday, the North Korean Foreign Minister, Choe Son Hui, fiercely criticized this trilateral summit. "The three countries' aggressive war exercises will fail to bring the North under control, but rather bring a more serious, realistic and unavoidable threat to themselves," she warned in a statement. "USA. he will be very aware of what he is betting, for which he will undoubtedly regret it, she added ”.
Just two hours later, the country fired a short-range ballistic missile that landed harmlessly in waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula.
Today's launch adds to a record thirty or so projectiles launched in early November by the regime in response to major aerial maneuvers by Seoul and Washington, including another ICBM that apparently misfired and crashed prematurely in sea waters. from Japan.
This increase in tensions has been one of the star themes of the diplomatic summits held this week in Asia.
During the meeting between the US and Chinese leaders in Bali, Indonesia on Monday, US President Joe Biden asked his counterpart Xi Jinping to put pressure on his communist neighbor to stop the rocket fire. However, the American also later admitted to the press that he does not know to what extent Beijing has the ability to influence his ally.
