AP
Seoul, November 17
North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile on Thursday towards its eastern waters, South Korea’s military said, hours after the North threatened to launch “fiercer” military responses to the US bolstering its security commitment to its allies South Korea and Japan.
South Korea’s military detected the launch from the North’s eastern coastal Wonsan area at 10.48am, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
It said South Korea had boosted its surveillance of North Korea while maintaining a military readiness and a close coordination with the United States.
It was North Korea’s first ballistic missile firing in eight days and the latest in its barrage of tests in recent months.
North Korea previously said some of the tests were simulations of nuclear attacks on South Korean and US targets.
Many experts say North Korea would eventually want to enhance its nuclear capability to wrest bigger concessions from its rivals.
Earlier on Thursday, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui warned that a recent US-South Korea-Japan summit accord on the North would leave tensions on the Korean Peninsula “more unpredictable”.
Choe’s statement was North Korea’s first official response to US President Joe Biden’s trilateral summit with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on the sidelines of a regional gathering on Sunday in Cambodia.
In their joint statement, the three leaders strongly condemned North Korea’s recent missile tests and agreed to work together to strengthen deterrence, while Biden reaffirmed the US commitment to defend South Korea and Japan with a full range of capabilities, including its nuclear arms.
