The United States and its close allies Japan and South Korea have issued a joint statement to ‘condemn’ the fresh latest missile launches by North Korea.
‘These launches are clear violations of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions, and demonstrate the threat (that North Korea’s)… unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs pose to the region,’ the statement said.
North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles, South Korea’s military said Thursday, shortly after Pyongyang warned of an ‘inevitable’ response to ongoing US-South Korea joint military drills.
The trilateral statement reflected the growing thaw between Japan and South Korea — a major foreign policy goal of President Joe Biden’s administration as it strengthens alliances in a region tested by North Korea and expansionist China.
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‘The United States reaffirms unequivocally its ironclad security commitments to both Japan and the ROK,’ as South Korea is officially known, the statement said.
It noted that US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met Thursday in Tokyo with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts ‘to further strengthen trilateral cooperation, including through lock-step coordination in responding to the threats’ from North Korea.
The statement underscored that the trilateral alliance’s ‘cooperation would not be shaken by provocations.’
South Korea and the United States, which have ramped up defence cooperation in response to growing threats from the nuclear-armed North, are currently carrying out joint large-scale live-fire ‘annihilation’ exercises.
Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it had detected the launch of “two short-range ballistic missiles from the Sunan area into the East Sea between 19:25 and 19:37 (1025 to 1037 GMT),” referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.
‘We have stepped up monitoring in case of further provocations and are maintaining readiness in close coordination with the United States,’ the military said.
Tokyo also confirmed the missile launches, with a defence ministry official telling reporters that the two missiles had landed in waters within Japan’s exclusive economic zone.