Flight over Japanese territory: North Korea’s missile test – “an escalation”

The UN sees North Korea’s missile launch towards the Sea of ​​Japan as a “clear escalation”. US President Biden spoke of a “danger to the Japanese people”. The UN Security Council could meet as early as Wednesday.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned North Korea’s renewed missile test. “This is clearly an escalation, something the Secretary-General condemns,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York. A denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is necessary. The unity of the UN Security Council on this issue is “extremely important”.

Meeting for Wednesday in preparation

Pyongyang had fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile toward the Sea of ​​Japan (Korean: East Sea). It was the first time a North Korean missile has flown over the Japanese archipelago in almost five years.

In response, the US is aiming for an early meeting of the UN Security Council. The request for a meeting of the most powerful UN body for this Wednesday is imminent, according to diplomats. Since Wednesday is actually classified as a movable holiday by the UN because of the Jewish Yom Kippur festival, it was initially unclear whether the council with its 15 members could actually deliberate on this day.

The United States also strongly condemned North Korea’s latest missile test. Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Biden described the test in a phone call as “a danger to the Japanese people,” the White House said. It is about “a destabilization of the region and a clear violation of resolutions of the United Nations Security Council”.

According to the White House, Biden and Kishida have agreed to continue to closely coordinate “their immediate and longer-term response” both bilaterally and with South Korea and the international community.

South Korean President Yun Suk-Yol said such a “reckless nuclear provocation will be met with determination by our military, as well as by our allies and the international community.” The US and South Korea reacted not only with verbal criticism of the missile launch, but also with a joint military exercise over the Yellow Sea, a so-called marginal sea of ​​the Pacific, which is bordered by China and the Korean peninsula.

Missile tests over several days

After the rocket was launched this morning, Japan briefly put residents in the north-east of the country on alert. North Korea had already tested two short-range ballistic missiles on Saturday.