North Korean Missile Launch Over Japan: ‘There will be no bright future’ – Shinzo Abe
The Oasis Reporters
September 15, 2017
Here is the Japanese prime minister’s full response to the North Korea missile launch:
The UN resolution showed the international community’s unified strong will for a peaceful solution. But despite that, North Korea has again carried out this outrageous conduct.
It is absolutely unacceptable.
We request an emergency meeting of the United Nations security council. Global peace is threatened by North Korea’s dangerous provocations.
The international community should unite against such conduct to send a clear message … The recent sanctions and resolutions must be fully complied with and implemented. That is now ever more clear.
If North Korea continues to walk this road, there will be no bright future. We need to get North Korea to understand that.
This time, the Japanese government once again, since immediately after the missile launch … had completely assessed the movements of the missile and we have taken all full necessary measures.
And under the firm Japan-US alliance, we will step up our level of alert to ensure the security and the sense of security of the Japanese people.
James Mattis, the US defense secretary, has accused North Korea of “a reckless act”.
Mattis said the missile “was fired over Japan and put millions of Japanese in duck and cover”.
But when questioned on how the US would respond, Mattis said:
I don’t want to talk on that yet.
US president Donald Trump has been briefed on the missile launch, he confirmed.
South Korea fires missile in response
Yonhap news agency reports that Seoul has flexed its muscles in the wake of the North Korea test:
The South’s president Moon Jae-in immediately convened a national security council (NSC) meeting as the country’s troops conducted ballistic missile training in the East Sea [also known as the Sea of Japan] in response to the North’s latest provocation.
The military fired the Hyunmoo-II missile in consideration of the distance between the training site and the Sunan airfield, which is the “origin of provocation,” the joint chiefs of staff said.
The quick response represents the military’s combat readiness, it said in a statement.
US Pacific Command and the South Korean military said they believe it to have been an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) – as was used in the August launch of the Hwasong-12.
But the Japanese foreign minister Taro Kono said he believed the missile was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which has a significantly greater range.
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, said Friday’s missile reached an altitude of 800km and flew 3,700km – 800km further than the August launch.
No debris landed in Japanese territory, Suga said.
People living in regions near the missile flight path in Hokkaido received two text alerts on Friday morning.
The first, at 7am local time (10pm Thursday GMT), read:
Missile launched. Missile launched. It seems that the missile has been launched from North Korea. Please evacuate to a building with strong structure or go to the basement.
The second, which came seven minutes later, read:
Missile passed. Missile passed. It seems that the missile has passed Hokkaido area and landed in the Pacific Ocean. If you find anything suspicious, please don’t go close to it. Report it to the police and firefighters.
The missile test comes just days after the United Nations security council approved tougher sanctions against North Korea.
The vote for the sanctions, the ninth package of measures imposed by the UN security council on Pyongyang since 2006 for its nuclear and missile tests, came as a relief to US diplomats who had feared a Chinese abstention, which would have considerably blunted the impact of the new sanctions.
In late night negotiations on Sunday, the US considerably diluted its initial draft sanctions resolution, which would have imposed a complete oil embargo and a partial naval blockade, in an effort to win support from China and Russia.
The final resolution adopted by the security council on Monday imposed a ban on oil condensates exports to the regime, capped refined petroleum exports at 2m barrels a year – cutting existing export levels by half – and maintaining international exports of crude oil to North Korea at existing levels, about 4m barrels a year. China supplies most of North Korea’s crude.
Credit : Guardian News
