Seoul, South Korea
CNN
—
North Korea fired what appeared to be a long-range ballistic missile from the Pyongyang area into waters off its east coast, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Wednesday, signaling a potential new round of confrontation. in Seoul and Washington.
Japan’s Coast Guard said the missile was launched at 9:59 am local time and fell into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, at 11:15 am, citing the Ministry of Defense. It warned vessels in the fall area to be careful and watch for more information.
The flight time, if confirmed, would be similar to North Korea’s missiles tested in March and April this year. Both are intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), weapons that have the range to hit the continental United States.
Wednesday’s launch comes after Pyongyang earlier this week threatened to shoot down US military reconnaissance planes flying over the nearby East Sea.
Kim Yo Jong, a senior North Korean official and brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accused a US spy plane of entering the North’s exclusive economic zone at least eight times on Monday, according to a statement on Tuesday from North Korea’s state news agency KCNA.
“In the case of repeated illegal entry, US forces will experience a critical flight,” Kim warned in the statement.
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The missile launch and fiery rhetoric, while not unusual for Pyongyang, come amid rising tensions as Washington and Seoul step up their defense cooperation and the leaders of South Korea, Japan and the US are in Lithuania for a NATO summit, where North Korea is on the agenda.
A communique from the NATO meeting on Tuesday urged North Korea to abandon its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs, in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions banning them.
“We call on (North Korea) to accept the repeated offers of dialogue put forward by all parties concerned, including Japan, the United States, and the Republic of Korea,” the communique said.
But North Korea has shown no sign that it is willing to negotiate with Washington or Seoul.
“Kim Yo Jong’s fierce statement against US surveillance aircraft is part of a pattern in North Korea of expanding external threats to rally domestic support and justify weapons tests ,” said Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
“Pyongyang has also timed its show of force to disrupt what it considers diplomatic coordination against it, in this case, the leaders of South Korea and Japan meeting during the NATO summit.”
Chun In-bum, a former lieutenant general in the South Korean Army, said the missile test and shooting threats in succession showed how North Korea operates.
“The fact that North Korea gave such a warning (of a shootdown) as it issued such a statement to increase tension and focus our attention elsewhere than the actual shooting in a US surveillance plane,” Chun said.
Last month, tens of thousands of North Koreans marched in anti-US rallies in Pyongyang, marking the 73rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War. The participants criticized the US as “Destroyer of peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula” and warned of nuclear war, according to KCNA.
Meanwhile, South Korea, the US and Japan are conducting joint and trilateral military exercises aimed at preventing any military threat from North Korea.
This is a developing story and will be updated.