Seoul (EFE).- North Korea today launched a new ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan (called the East Sea in the two Koreas), as reported by the South Korean army, in a new response to the great maneuvers that Seoul and Washington are carrying out carried out these days and in the hours prior to the visit of the South Korean president to Tokyo.
The projectile fired today is an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which Seoul detected at 7.10 today (22.10 GMT on Wednesday) and was launched from the Sunan area, where the airport of the North Korean capital is located.
For its part, the Japanese Ministry of Defense indicated that the projectile flew for about 69 minutes and crashed in the waters of the Sea of Japan at around 8:18 a.m. local time (23:18 GMT on Wednesday) about 250 kilometers west of Oshima Island. , which lies off the southwestern coast of the northern island of Hokkaido.
The South Korean army later added that the projectile “was launched at a very wide angle” and that it traveled about 1,000 kilometers before crashing into the sea and that its main person in charge, Kim Seung-gyeom, met with the commander of the US Combined Forces. US-South Korea, Paul LaCamera, to analyze the situation.
Japan and South Korea park their disputes in the face of the growing threat from Pyongyang
The North’s new launch came just hours before South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol Yoon landed in Japan for a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the first between the two countries in 12 years.
Kishida and Yoon Suk-yeol have opted to strengthen ties in the face of Pyongyang’s arms advances and have promised to strengthen their bilateral cooperation on security matters and with the United States to deal with North Korea’s developments in its nuclear program and missiles.
The rise to power of the conservative Yoon last May and the arms advances shown by Pyongyang are serving to boost cooperation, especially in the military field, after a period in which relations between Seoul and Tokyo went through their worst moment in years.
Before flying to Tokyo, Yoon chaired a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) in Seoul, where he stated that “North Korea will surely pay for its reckless provocations.”
The North Korean test, the eighth so far this year, has also been interpreted as a reply to the spring exercises of the allies, which Pyongyang considers a test to invade its territory and to which it has promised to give an “unprecedented” response.
The peninsula is experiencing a historic level of tension after 2022 in which Pyongyang, which has rejected offers to return to dialogue.