UN to hold emergency meeting on North Korea missile launch

North Korea has previously fired Rodong and other missiles into the sea but South Korean analysts said Wednesday’s flight was one of the longest.

The military is not excluding the possibility that it might have been a Scud-type missile, particularly the more advanced, extended-range Scud-ER, also known as the Hwasong-7, which can travel more than 1,000 kilometers, long enough to cover the entire Korean Peninsula and reach USA military installations in Japan.

“(The missile launch) is a good example that shows how the North’s missile threats can be materializing in reality”, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told reporters on the sidelines of a forum held in central Seoul.

But it had vowed a “physical response” after the US and South Korea agreed plans to deploy an advanced United States missile defence system in South Korea. One of the missiles, it said in a statement, exploded immediately after launch, while a second was tracked over North Korea and into the Sea of Japan.

He added that Japan had lodged a protest with North Korea and would coordinate with the USA and South Korea over ” resolute measures” in response.

North Korea fired a ballistic missile Wednesday morning that plunged into Japan’s exclusive economic zone for the first time.

Peter Wilson, British deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said that North Korea firing a missile into Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone was “something the [Security] Council should take extremely seriously”. The type of missile launched has a maximum range of some 810 miles.

– June 22: The U.S. and South Korea say North Korea fires two suspected Musudan missiles.

“We call on North Korea to refrain from actions and rhetoric that further raise tensions in the region and to focus instead on taking concrete steps toward fulfilling its commitments and worldwide obligations and commitments”, Richey-Allen said.

The US remains prepared to work with its allies and partners around the world to respond to further North Korean provocations as well as to defend itself and allies from any attack or provocation, Mason said.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe strongly condemned the launch.

The mid-range Rodong missile Pyongyang launched on Wednesday flew in a northeasterly direction and landed in an area about 155 miles west of Akita Prefecture. He said North Korea strongly urged the U.S.to withdraw its “aggressive army”, but said he doubted whether Trump or any other potential USA president would take troops out of South Korea. About 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea and tens of thousands of more in Japan.

Pyongyang has repeatedly warned of pre-emptive nuclear strikes against the South and US targets, although the main focus of its nuclear weapons programme is to develop a credible strike threat against the U.S. mainland. Pyongyang repeatedly tests missiles into the Sea of Japan, but had stopped short of firing into waters controlled by Japan.

Wednesday’s launch came after the North fired three missiles on July 19 after Seoul and the United States agreed to deploy an advanced USA missile defense system in South Korea by the end of 2017. North Korea says the test-firings are part of a simulated pre-emptive attack on ports and airfields in South Korea.