Tokyo [Japan], January 6 (ANI): North Korea launched a ballistic missile towards the Sea of Japan, the Kyodo news citing the South Korean army reported.
The report, citing an official, additional acknowledged that Japan’s Defence Ministry later confirmed the missile had possible landed exterior Japan’s unique financial zone (EEZ).
This launch occurred simply two weeks earlier than US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20 and marked North Korea’s first missile exercise since firing a number of short-range ballistic missiles on November 5, the report confirmed.
The launch additionally coincided with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s go to to South Korea, Japan, and France from January 4-9.
Earlier within the week, the US Department of State, in an official assertion, mentioned, “The Secretary will discuss how the United States and the ROK can strengthen key efforts to promote a free, open, and prosperous Indo-Pacific, as well as trilateral efforts with Japan.””In Japan, Secretary Blinken will meet with senior Japanese government officials to review the tremendous progress the US-Japan alliance has made over the past few years. Secretary Blinken will reaffirm the importance of the alliance in addressing a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues and continue to build on the momentum of US-Japan-ROK trilateral cooperation,” the assertion added,Meanwhile, on October 31, Japan’s Defence Ministry had reported that North Korea launched not less than one ballistic missile, suspected to be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)-class weapon.
The missile was launched at 7:11 am native time, flew eastward from inside North Korea’s inside earlier than touchdown exterior Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in waters roughly 200 kilometres west of Hokkaido’s Okushiri Island at 8:37 am, NHK World had reported.
Japan’s Defence Minister Nakatani Gen had acknowledged that the missile’s flight length of 1 hour and 26 minutes marked the longest-ever trajectory of a North Korean ballistic missile. He additional famous that the missile travelled round 1,000 kilometres and reached a peak altitude of roughly 7,000 kilometres.
In response to the incident, Japan’s Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru had introduced plans to convene the National Security Council to deal with the potential menace posed by the launch. (ANI)