It is being reported that on Tuesday, North Korea launched a ballistic missile toward Japan, with the missile having possibly landed in Japan’s economic zone, which is the 200 miles of coastline around Japan. News of North Korea’s surprise missile launch came from both South Korean and Japanese officials and is all part of North Korea’s plan to develop a working nuclear-tipped missile that will be able to hit the United States.
Japanese officials have stated that Tuesday’s North Korean missile launch, where the missile landed east of the Korean peninsula and close to Japan, came from the North Phyongan province. It is not currently known if this missile launch was meant as part of North Korea’s long-range missile testing or whether it was part of their collection of short-range missiles, as The Guardian reported.
Meanwhile, China’s UN ambassador Liu Jieyi has spoken publicly about tensions running high along the Korean peninsula. After Donald Trump tweeted that he was grateful for China attempting to diplomatically address the situation in North Korea, he admitted that it had “not worked out,” according to CNN .
Jieyi appeared to agree with Trump’s statement and admitted that if North Korea doesn’t relent with their missile tests, there may be terrible consequences in the future.
“Certainly if tension goes up and goes up only then sooner or later it will get out of control and the consequences will be disastrous.”
Japan says strongly protested North Korea missile launch https://t.co/FFL9xj5Dai https://t.co/wGvzATBCN0 ReutersUK
— ???????????8 (@abbear111) July 4, 2017
North Korea’s surprise ballistic missile is reported by the BBC to have been launched at 9:40 a.m. local time with the missile having flown a distance of 578 miles after which it is said to have most likely dropped into the Sea of Japan just 40 minutes later.
Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan, Yoshihide Suga, has told the press that North Korea firing their missiles toward Japan will not be tolerated.
“North Korea’s repeated provocations like this are absolutely unacceptable. We lodged a strong protest and condemned it.”
Trump tweets in response to launch: “hard to believe South Korea and Japan will put up with this much longer” https://t.co/VrYBl1Cmgv
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) July 4, 2017
South Korea’s new president, Moon Jae-in, is also angry and worried over North Korea’s provocative aiming of a ballistic missile at Japan and is planning to address it with an emergency meeting of South Korea’s security council.
Tuesday’s North Korean missile launch may have been a gesture of defiance as it comes only one day after Donald Trump had a teleconference with Japan’s Prime Minister, as well as China’s president, about the threat that North Korea poses to the world.
There is currently no explanation from North Korea as to why they launched a ballistic missile towards the Sea of Japan.
[Featured Image by Junko Kimura/Getty Images]
