Missile Launch against G7

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea launched a missile from Wonsan, located in eastern coast of Korean Peninsula, to Japan Sea in Monday morning. The missile touched down at 300 kilometers north of Japan’s Oki Islands and 500 kilometers west of Sado Island. The identified point was in Japan’s economic exclusive zone. North Korea has been launching missiles in every three consecutive weeks. United States Pacific Command issued an initial analysis that DPRK launched a short-range ballistic missile that flew for six minutes.

It was the forth case that North Korea struck Japan’s economic exclusive zone. South Korean Ministry of Defense analyzed that it was a Scud missile targeting South Korea or Scud ER including southern part of Japan in its range. While North Korea has been testing missile launches to a high altitude and reentry into the atmosphere, Japanese Ministry of Defense did not find any specific phenomenon in its flying course.

It is likely that North Korea protested the outcome of Group of Seven Summit in Italy last weekend, in which the parties delivered a communiqué embracing necessity of putting higher pressure on North Korea. “Condemning in the strongest terms North Korea’s nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches, we stand ready to strengthen measures aimed at achieving these objectives and strongly call on the international community to redouble its efforts to ensure the sustained comprehensive and thorough implementation of relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions,” described the Communiqué.

Japanese radio station, Radio Press, reported that Korean Central Broadcasting Station quoted a statement of a North Korean spokesperson that accused Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged G7 add pressure on North Korea. “It is foolish for Japan to regard our defensive measures as intimidation and activate their ambition of re-aggression on our land,” said the spokes person. “While we have only been targeting U.S. military facilities in Japan, the target will be changed, if Japan follows U.S. and takes adversary action to us.”

The area missile touched down is a place for crab fishery. Japanese TV reported the comments of fishermen who concerned missile strike on their boats. An alert system of Japanese government that disseminates information of launched missile through mobile phone, or J-Alert, was not operated this time. While the system was used only twice in North Korea’s missile launch, more people are worried about the possibility of the alert being too late. Anti-ballistic missile system is not fully reliable so far. Concerns in Japan are eventually spreading in Japanese society.