This shot precedes by two days the opening of the summit of leaders of the Association of Nations of Southeast Asia (ASEAN).
Le Monde with AFP
North Korea shot, on Wednesday, November 9, at least one ballistic missile, announced the South Korean army. This is the latest launch of Pyongyang after a record series of military tests at the beginning of the month. The projectile was drawn towards the Sea of Japan, according to the South Korean joint staff. The Japanese government has also confirmed the launch by writing on Twitter that Pyongyang “launched an alleged ballistic missile”.
At the beginning of the month, North Korea carried out a launch burst – including that of an intercontinental ballistic missile which has apparently failed, according to Seoul – in reaction to the biggest air exercises ever carried out by the United States and South Korea. Pyongyang also pulled a ballistic missile which crossed the line serving as a de facto maritime border between the two countries and fell near the territorial waters of South Korea. The South Korean president, Yoon Seok-Youl, had described this shot as a “de facto territorial invasion”.
This launch of at least one ballistic missile precedes by two days the opening of the summit of leaders of the Association of Nations of Southeast Asia (ASEAN), in the capital of Cambodis, Pnom Penh, which will kick off a diplomatic sequence charged in the region on Friday, the scene of growing tensions between Washington and Beijing.
“repeated violations”
The missile crisis drew a fracture line between Americans and Chinese, the former accusing the latter of covering the “repeated violations” of the North Korean. Seoul and Washington are now expecting the Kim Jong-Un diet soon to be a nuclear test, which would be the first since 2017.
The American president, Joe Biden, his South Korean counterpart, Yoon Seok-Youl, and the Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, must meet on the sidelines of the summits of the ASEAN or the G20, reported the Japanese press .