Protests as projectile reaches Japan ADIZ
North Korea fired a submarine-launched missile yesterday that flew about 500 km towards Japan, a show of improving technological capability for the isolated country that has conducted a series of launches in defiance of UN sanctions.
Having the ability to fire a missile from a submarine could help North Korea evade a new anti-missile system planned for South Korea and pose a threat even if nuclear-armed North Korea's land-based arsenal was destroyed, experts said.
The ballistic missile was fired at around 5:30am from near the coastal city of Sinpo, where a submarine base is located, officials at South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Defence Ministry told Reuters.
The projectile reached Japan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ) for the first time, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a briefing, referring to an area of control designated by countries to help maintain air security.
The missile was fired at a high angle, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported, an indication that its full range would be 1,000 km at an ordinary trajectory. The distance indicated the North's push to develop a submarine-launched missile system was paying off, officials and experts said.
The launch came two days after rival South Korea and the United States began annual military exercises in the South that North Korea condemns as a preparation for invasion, and has threatened retaliation.
"This poses a grave threat to Japan's security, and is an unforgivable act that damages regional peace and stability markedly," Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters, adding that Japan had lodged a stern protest.
China opposes North Korea's nuclear and missile programme as well as any words or deeds that cause tension on the Korean peninsula, its foreign minister, Wang Yi, said yesterday at previously scheduled meeting with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts in Tokyo.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry condemned the launch and warned of more sanctions and isolation for its rival that "will only speed up its self-destruction."
SLBM technology is enjoyed only by six countries including the United States, Russia and China.
North Korea said this year it had miniaturised a nuclear warhead to fit on a ballistic missile but outside experts have said there is yet to be firm evidence to back up the claim.
Comments