Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
While the world is focused upon fighting covid infection, North Korea on Thursday morning fired two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, which is the first such test since Joe Biden became US president.
Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga confirmed North Korea fired two ballistic missiles in breach of United Nations resolutions. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the short-range ballistic missiles landed in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
US Indo-Pacific Command said it was monitoring the situation and consulting with allies, adding that its commitment to defend Japan and South Korea remains ironclad. Pyongyang is banned from testing ballistic missiles, considered threatening weapons, under UN Security Council resolutions.
Japan and South Korea have both condemned the test. Japan said no debris had fallen within its territorial waters.
The US Pacific Command, which oversees military forces in the Asia-Pacific region, said on Thursday that the test highlighted the threat that North Korea’s illicit weapons program poses to its neighbors and the international community.
Thursday’s test also comes days after the US received its first North Korean in custody after Mun Chol Myung was extradited from Malaysia. Mun is a businessman accused of laundering money through the US financial system to provide luxury items to North Korea.
The deal between former US president Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un that reached in Singapore in 2018 was that Pyongyang would not test long-range ballistic missiles or nuclear weapons. At that time, the White House did not concern itself with smaller tests.
Washington will also be aware that Pyongyang has bigger weapons in its arsenal which it has not tested since late 2017. North Korea has spent more than a year in isolation. It even cut off most trade with its closest ally China amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, and its economy is thought to be in a dire state.
Now that the weapons tests appear to be making a return, many are wondering just how far is Kim Jong-un willing to go to get the attention of the White House.
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