Japan "concerned" after test firing of new North Korean missile
Japanese government spokesperson Katsunobu Kato on September 16, 2020 in Tokyo.
AP - Eugene Hoshiko
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Japan does not hide its concern after the firing of a new long-range cruise missile carried out by North Korea during the weekend of September 11-12.
Directly threatened by North Korean missiles, Japan will continue to work closely with the United States and South Korea to monitor developments, added government spokesman Katsunobu Kato.
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Japan knows little about these
test fires of a new generation
of long-range
missiles
that Pyongyang claims to have carried out over the weekend. Usually well informed, the intelligence services of the South Korean army did not report their preparation, reports our correspondent in Tokyo,
Frédéric Charles
. “
Japan is very concerned,
” government spokesman Katsunobu Kato told reporters.
Before reacting further, Japan is awaiting the arrival in Tokyo this week of Sung Kim, the United States' special representative for North Korea, and the South Korean nuclear negotiator.
Diplomats from the three countries will discuss this new type of North Korean missile capable, analysts said, of passing under missile defense radars and hitting targets in South Korea and Japan.
North Korea does not plan to cut nuclear program
"
This activity underlines the continued development by North Korea of its nuclear program and the threats that this poses to its neighbors and the international community
," the Pentagon reacted in a statement.
For more than a decade, Japan and the United States have deployed at sea, on the ground and in space, an anti-missile shield to prevent
North Korean devices
likely to be armed with warheads. nuclear weapons strike their territories.
According to the Japanese press, North Korea is all the more dangerous today because its economy is in poor condition and it is not immune to the
Covid-19 pandemic either
, even if it claims to contrary.
“North Korea is not ready to discuss at the moment because it is not going to reduce its nuclear program.
She's not going to denuclearize.
What she wants is the easing of sanctions on the peninsula because it is suffocated ”
Juliette Morillot, specialist in North Korea
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