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North Korea has launched two projectiles, one of which landed in waters inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, the Japanese government said on Wednesday, after what appears to have been a show of strength by Pyongyang before it resumes nuclear talks with the US at the weekend.
Japan’s government said the projectiles appeared to be ballistic missiles, adding that there were no immediate reports of damage to shipping or aircraft.
“One of them appears to have fallen into waters … inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone,” Japan’s top government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, told reporters. Reports said one of the projectiles had landed in the sea off the coast of Shimane prefecture.
Earlier, South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said North Korea had fired an unidentified projectile from Wonsan, in Gangwon province, towards the sea to the east. They said the military was watching closely for possible additional launches.
Japan’s coast guard urged vessels in the area of the Japan Sea – known in Korea as the East Sea – to pay attention to further information and not to approach any debris.
The launch was the ninth since Donald Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, met at the heavily guarded demilitarised zone (DMZ)between the two Koreas in June, and came soon after Pyongyang announced it would hold working-level talks with the US on Saturday – a development that could potentially break months of stalemate over the North’s nuclear weapons programme.
Talks aimed at dismantling North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes have been stalled since the second summit between Trump and Kim in Vietnam in February ended without a deal.
Trump has played down North Korea’s recent series of short-range launches, saying in September the US and North Korea “didn’t have an agreement on short-range missiles” and that many countries test such weapons.
After supervising tests of what the North described as a “newly developed super-large multiple rocket launcher” last month, Kim Jong-un was quoted by state media as saying that the system would require a “running fire test” to complete its development.
North Korea could also be demonstrating its anger after South Korea displayed some of its newly purchased US-made F-35 stealth fighter jets during its Armed Forces Day ceremony on Tuesday.
The North has condemned the F-35 acquisitions as a grave provocation that violate recent inter-Korean agreements aimed at lowering military tensions.
Harry J Kazianis, senior director of Korean studies at the Centre for the National Interest, in Washington, said North Korea seemed to be “making its negotiating position quite clear” ahead of this weekend’s nuclear talks.
He added: “North Korea’s message is clear: our capacity to cause trouble is increasing by the day. Pyongyang seems set to push Washington to back off from past demands of full denuclearisation for what are only promises of sanctions relief.
“If talks do indeed fail once again, North Korea will conduct many more missile tests just like today – and perhaps nuclear weapons tests – driving tensions back to what could be another dangerous showdown.”
It is not the first time North Korean missiles have landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone, but short-range missiles launched in recent months have fallen short of the zone, which stretches 370km (230 miles) from the country’s coast.
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