North Korea fires another ballistic missile

North Korea fired at least one ballistic missile on Wednesday, November 9, the South Korean army announced. It is Pyongyang’s latest launch after a record series of military trials earlier this month. The projectile was fired in the direction of the Sea of ​​Japan, according to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Japanese government also confirmed the launch, writing on Twitter that Pyongyang “launched a suspected ballistic missile”.

Earlier this month, North Korea carried out a flurry of launches – including one of an intercontinental ballistic missile that Seoul said apparently failed – in response to the biggest ever air drills by the US and Korea. from South. Pyongyang also fired a ballistic missile that crossed the line serving as the de facto maritime boundary between the two countries and landed near South Korea’s territorial waters. South Korean President Yoon Seok-youl called the shooting a“de facto territorial invasion”.

This launch of at least one ballistic missile precedes by two days the opening of the summit of the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in the capital of Cambodia, Pnomh Penh, which will give Friday the kick-off of a diplomatic sequence charged in the region, theater of growing tensions between Washington and Beijing.

“Repeated Violations”

The missile crisis has drawn a dividing line between Americans and Chinese, with the former accusing the latter of covering up the “repeated violations” North Koreans. Seoul and Washington now expect Kim Jong-un’s regime to carry out a nuclear test soon, which would be the first since 2017.

US President Joe Biden, his South Korean counterpart, Yoon Seok-youl, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are due to meet on the sidelines of ASEAN or G20 summits, Japanese press reported.