Pyongyang is launching missiles with « unprecedented high frequency, escalating provocation, » Japan’s Defense Ministry said on Monday.
North Korea launched a long-range missile capable of reaching the U.S. on Monday, Japanese and South Korean officials said, as Pyongyang warned of a « touch-and-go situation » on the Korean peninsula.
North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, on Monday, which could have a potential range of more than 15,000 kilometers, said Japanese minister Shingo Miyake. « The whole of the U.S. territory would be within the range, » he added, according to AFP.
The White House, also describing the launch as an ICBM test, said it was a « flagrant violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions. »
Just hours earlier, North Korea had fired a short-range ballistic missile. North Korea’s dogged missile testing has set its neighbors South Korea and Japan on edge, turning to the U.S. for reassurance—a move that has angered Pyongyang.
If North Korea moves against South Korean territory or its people, it will spark an « immediate, overwhelming response, » South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Monday.
