North Korea fired three ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan on Wednesday, hours after U.S. President Joe Biden left the region for Asia to, among other things, reaffirm its support for Seoul and Tokyo in face of Pyongyang’s nuclear threat.
South Korea’s general staff said these projectiles were launched at 6:00 am, 6:37 am and 6:42 am from Sunan, in the suburbs of Pyongyang, towards the Sea of Japan, but did not specify. what exactly types of missiles are they.
The Japanese coast guard mentioned a possibly ballistic missileand asked the ships to remain clean of any debris that had fallen into the sea.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol immediately called a National Security Council meeting, his office said.
The North Korean regime, under UN sanctions on its weapons programs, has stepped up missile testing in recent months, blaming the attitude hostile The united state.
He tested an intercontinental ballistic missile in March for the first time since 2017. And South Korean and American intelligence services suspect he is planning an imminent nuclear test, which will also be his first in five years.
The U.S. government has said in recent days to expect a “provocation” from Pyongyang during or just after the stay of Joe Biden, who completed the tour of South Korea and Japan on Tuesday night.
During his stay in Seoul, the American president and his new South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol mentioned, according to the latter, the intensification of their joint military training, as well as the deployment of fighters on the peninsula. planes or missiles, to prepare for a nuclear attack.
The rise of American-South Korean maneuvers threatens to anger Pyongyang, which considers these exercises as clothing exercises for aggression. These maneuvers have been reduced in recent years due to the pandemic, and to allow the MM predecessors. Biden and Yoon, Donald Trump and Moon Jae-in, to try a rapprochement with North Korea.
Shortly before leaving South Korea on Sunday for Japan, Joe Biden sent a single message to Kim Jong Un.
Asked by a journalist who asked him if he had a message for the North Korean leader, the president replied in a laconic: How are you. Weather.
One way of letting Washington remain open to talking to North Korea, even if there is no reciprocity.
Talks in Pyongyang have stalled since the failed summit in 2019 between Mr Kim and then-US President Donald Trump. The North Korean regime ignored all offers of dialogue made by Washington.
During his trip to South Korea, Mr. Biden also indicated that Washington had offered to provide vaccines against COVID-19 in North Korea, but did not no response received.
Since the beginning of May, more than 3 million people have been affected by feveraccording to official media terms, and 68 died in North Korea, according to the latest official report published on Wednesday.
The country, whose 25 million inhabitants have not been vaccinated, has completely isolated the world since the beginning of the pandemic to protect itself against the virus, but the outbreak of contamination with the Omicron variant in neighboring countries has been defeated by the technique. ito. .
The way in which this health crisis will influence the military decisions of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is unknown as Americans, South Koreans and Japanese are trying to clarify.
On May 12, North Korea conducted a ballistic missile test the same day, first declaring a emergency due to the COVID outbreak.
Source: Radio-Canada
