US, South Korea Test Fire Missiles in Response to North Korea’s Actions

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South Korea, and the United States, fired four short-range missiles into the sea off the country’s east coast on Wednesday morning local time in response to North Korea sending a ballistic missile over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean the day before, officials in Seoul said.

Following North Korea’s actions on Tuesday, which are seen as provocations, South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong spoke with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts that evening to discuss a joint response.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Mori noted that North Korea’s repeated missile launches are a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and are a threat to the region and international community, according to Seoul.

Pyongyang’s latest long-range test, the first of its kind since 2017, drew international condemnation. Amid reports of a suspected missile launch, the Japanese government on Tuesday alerted citizens in the Hokkaido and Aomori prefectures to shelter in sturdy buildings and underground.

Officials in South Korea and Japan later confirmed that North Korea had test-fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile farther than it had before.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida strongly condemned North Korea’s actions, calling them “outrageous” and a threat to the security of Japan and the international community.

U.S. President Joe Biden also condemned the test in the “strongest terms,” and the European Union called it a “reckless and deliberately provocative action.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres echoed the EU, calling it a “reckless act” and a violation of Security Council resolutions.

“It is also of serious concern that the DPRK has again disregarded any consideration for international flight or maritime safety,” he said in a statement.

In response to the communist regime’s actions, South Korean and American troops staged their own missile drill, firing a pair of U.S.-made ATACMS short-range ballistic missiles, Reuters reported.

The military separately confirmed that a South Korean Hyunmoo-2 missile failed shortly after launch and crashed, but caused no casualties.

The United States asked the U.N. Security Council to meet on North Korea on Wednesday, but diplomats said China and Russia are opposed to a public discussion by the 15-member body.

The vice ministers of the United States, Japan, and South Korea agreed on Tuesday to work together to mitigate future North Korean threats, Seoul said on Wednesday.

They plan to meet in Tokyo this month to continue discussions about responding to North Korea at a Korea-U.S.-Japan Vice Foreign Ministers Council meeting.

“[T]he three vice ministers evaluated that the three countries are closely communicating with each other at the bilateral and trilateral levels, including foreign ministers and vice ministers, and the chief representative for North Korean nuclear weapons, regarding North Korea’s recent missile launch, and the U.N. Security Council response,” Seoul said.

In a separate call with the United States and South Korea, the two vice foreign ministers “decided to respond strongly” to North Korea.

South Korean lawmakers believe North Korea may be preparing for another nuclear test either on Oct. 16 or 17, ahead of the November U.S. midterm elections and at the time of the Chinese regime’s party congress, which is scheduled for Oct. 16.

In July, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that China deters North Korea from participating in denuclearization efforts pursued by the U.S. government because Beijing “benefits from Chairman Kim [Jong Un] continuing to hold his nuclear weapons.”

Pompeo, who was speaking at the Asian Leadership Conference in Seoul, said he believes Chinese leader Xi Jinping uses Kim as a puppet. The Chinese regime, he said, uses Pyongyang as “an important buffer state,” causing Washington to spend energy defending East Asia against North Korea’s nuclear weapons systems.