TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
North Korea fires 'missile', insists on right to weapons tests
The device was fired from the northern province of Jagang into waters off the east coast, according to the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a Japanese defence ministry spokesman told AFP it "appears to be a ballistic missile".
Change Size
This files screen grab image taken from North Korean broadcaster KCTV on August 1, 2019 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watching the launch of a ballistic missile at an unknown location in North Korea early on July 31. North Korea fired several missiles just days after a visit to the region by the top US defense and diplomatic officials, a US official said on March 23, 2021, in Pyongyang's first overt challenge to the administration of US President Joe Biden. (AFP/KCTV)
N
uclear-armed North Korea fired what appeared to be a short-range missile into the sea on Tuesday, the South's military said, as Pyongyang's UN ambassador insisted it had an undeniable right to test its weapons.
The device was fired from the northern province of Jagang into waters off the east coast, according to the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a Japanese defence ministry spokesman told AFP it "appears to be a ballistic missile".
Less than an hour later, Pyongyang's United Nations ambassador Kim Song told the UN General Assembly in New York: "Nobody can deny the right to self-defence for the DPRK", the North's official name.
It is the latest in a series of mixed messages from Pyongyang, coming days after leader Kim Jong Un's influential sister Kim Yo Jong, a key adviser to her brother, dangled the prospect of an inter-Korean summit.
But she insisted that "impartiality" and mutual respect would be required, calling for the South to "stop spouting an impudent remark".
She condemned as "double standards" South Korean and US criticism of the North's military developments, while the allies build up their own capacities.
In recent days, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who has only months left in office, reiterated at the UN General Assembly his longstanding calls for a formal declaration of an end to the Korean War.
