Japan calls for UN meeting after N Korea fires two suspected missiles

Tokyo, Feb 20, (dpa/GNA) – Japan has requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, after North Korea fired two suspected short-range ballistic missiles towards the waters off its eastern coast on Monday.

The South Korean military said the missiles, were launched from the Sukchon area north of Pyongyang around 7 am (2200 GMT Sunday) towards the East Sea, as the Sea of Japan is also known, and travelled some 390 kilometres and 340 kilometres, respectively.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, said the UN Security Council should look into the tests in comments to reporters on Monday. Japan’s Defence Ministry said that the missiles appeared to have fallen outside the country’s exclusive economic zone, according to Kyodo News.

Both South Korea and Japan condemned the missile test. South Korea’s military called it a renewed provocation, while Japanese government spokesperson Hirokazu Matsuno, called the actions “absolutely unacceptable.”

Hours after the launch, North Korean state news agency KCNA, said the North Korean military fired two shots from a 600-millimetre multiple rocket launcher during firing drills.

KCNA said the launcher, a “tactical nuclear” tool, boasts the capability “to assign only one multiple rocket launcher with four shells, so as to destroy an enemy operational airfield.”

The report went on to say that the Monday drill “fully demonstrated” the North Korean army’s “full readiness to deter, and will to counter the US and South Korean combined air force bragging about their air superiority.”

Earlier on Monday, North Korea released a statement by the influential sister of North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un, Kim Yo Jong, warning that the country may launch missiles into the Pacific Ocean.

Kim Yo Jong said Pyongyang was “well aware” of the movement of US forces around the Korean peninsula, and that it was “carefully examining the influence [this] would exert on the security of our state.” North Korea would take “corresponding counteraction, if it is judged to be any direct or indirect threat.”

“The frequency of using the Pacific as our firing range, depends upon the US forces’ action character,” she added in the statement carried by the state-controlled media.

On Sunday, the United States and South Korea held a joint air exercise, in response to Pyongyang’s firing of what North Korea said was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) a day earlier.

KCNA wrote on Saturday North Korea test-launched a Hwasong-15, a type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), from Pyongyang airport in what was termed a “surprise ICBM launching drill.”

UN resolutions prohibit North Korea from testing ballistic missiles of any range, which, depending on their design, can also be equipped with a nuclear warhead.

It would be the first test of such a missile in more than a month.

North Korea had threatened “unprecedented” military action on Friday, over plans by the US and South Korea to hold joint military drills in March.

South Korea’s general staff accused its neighbouring country of a “serious provocation.” The US also strongly condemned the suspected ICBM test.

The situation on the Korean peninsula is currently very tense. Nuclear-armed North Korea has conducted a string of missile tests in the past few weeks.

Observers fear that Pyongyang’s first nuclear test in years is imminent.

GNA