Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said on September 13 that Japan had lodged a strong protest against North Korea following Pyongyang’s latest missile launch.
North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast on Wednesday, just an hour before leader Kim Jong Un met President Vladimir Putin in Russia
Matsuno told reporters both missiles fell in the sea outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and that Tokyo would respond in close cooperation with the international community.
The missiles were launched from near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, and flew about 650 km (404 miles), said South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, which condemned the launch as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
The nuclear-armed North has conducted regular launches of everything from short-range and cruise missiles to massive intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that can strike the continental United States.
All of North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons activities are banned by United Nations Security Council resolutions that were last passed with the support of Pyongyang’s partners in China and Russia in 2017.
(Inputs from Reuters)