North Korea Fires Long-Range Ballistic Missile

Seoul, South Korea
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North Korea has fired what appears to be a long-range ballistic missile from the Pyongyang area to waters off its east coast, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. This action marks a potential new round of confrontation with Seoul and Washington.

Japan’s Coast Guard reported that the missile was launched at 9:59 a.m. local time and fell into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, at 11:15 a.m. It issued a warning to ships in the fall area to exercise caution and look out for further information.

The flight time, if confirmed, would be similar to those of North Korean missiles tested in March and April of this year. Both of those tests involved intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the continental United States.

This recent missile launch comes after Pyongyang threatened earlier this week to shoot down US military reconnaissance planes that fly over nearby waters in the East Sea. Kim Yo Jong, a senior North Korean official and sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accused a US spy plane of entering North Korea’s exclusive economic zone at least eight times on Monday, according to a statement from North Korea’s state news agency KCNA.

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The missile launch and fiery rhetoric, while not unusual for Pyongyang, come amid heightened tensions as Washington and Seoul ramp up their defense cooperation. The leaders of South Korea, Japan, and the United States are meeting 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, which are in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions. The communique also called on North Korea to accept offers of dialogue from concerned parties, including Japan, the United States, and South Korea.

However, North Korea has shown no signs of willingness to engage in negotiations with Washington or Seoul. Experts believe that Kim Yo Jong’s bellicose statement against US surveillance aircraft is part of a North Korean pattern of inflating external threats to rally domestic support and justify weapons tests. Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, stated that Pyongyang also times its shows of force to disrupt what it perceives as diplomatic coordination against it.

Tens of thousands of North Koreans marched in anti-US rallies in Pyongyang last month, marking the 73rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War. The participants denounced the US as the “Destroyer of peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula” and warned of nuclear war, according to KCNA.

Meanwhile, South Korea, the United States, and Japan have been conducting joint and trilateral military exercises aimed at deterring any military threat from North Korea.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.