Emergency session on North Korea planned at APEC summit – Politics

With the news of North Korea’s latest missile test, the two-day summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Community, the APEC Summit, kicked off in Bangkok today. The USA, South Korea and other countries want to come together for an emergency meeting on the sidelines of the summit. This also includes Japan and Australia, according to Japanese government circles. A total of 21 countries are taking part in the summit, including China’s President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron as guests of honour.

According to South Korean sources, North Korea has once again fired a nuclear-capable missile, an ICBM with a range of thousands of kilometers. It could theoretically reach US territory such as Guam. ICBMs are considered the most important means of delivery of nuclear weapons. After launching in the region around the capital Pyongyang, the rocket flew about 1,000 kilometers east towards the sea at an altitude of up to 6,100 kilometers, the South Korean general staff said. It probably fell into the sea within Japan’s exclusive economic zone – a 200-mile zone offshore, according to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

The governments in Seoul and Tokyo accused the largely isolated neighboring country of serious provocation on Friday. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida strongly condemned the rocket launch. North Korea’s repeated provocations are “unacceptable,” Kishida said. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has ordered his country’s joint defense with the United States to be strengthened, according to his office. Yoon also called for a reaction from the UN Security Council.

The National Security Council of the White House in Washington also condemned the test of a “long-range ballistic missile” and at the same time called on Pyongyang to engage in serious negotiations. “The door on diplomacy is not closed, but Pyongyang must immediately halt its destabilizing actions and instead decide on diplomatic engagement,” said spokeswoman Adrienne Watson.

UN resolutions prohibit the self-declared nuclear power North Korea from testing ballistic missiles of any range, which, depending on the design, can carry one or more nuclear warheads. ICBMs include those with a range of at least 5,500 kilometers.

The development of long-range strategic missiles is particularly aimed at the United States, which Pyongyang accuses of hostile policies. Tensions on the Korean peninsula are currently increasing again significantly.

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