North Korea’s Long-Range Missile Triggers US And Japan Military Drills

North Korea's Long-Range Missile Triggers US And Japan Military Drills

North Korea’s Long-Range Missile Triggers US And Japan Military Drills.

North Korea's Long-Range Missile Triggers US And Japan Military Drills

North Korea test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Friday, November 18, that landed just 200 kilometers (130 miles) off Japan.

According to reports, the ICBM has the capability to reach the United States of America.

Japan and the United States held joint military drills in the airspace over the Sea of Japan after North Korea fired a missile on Friday, Tokyo defense officials said.

Japan said the ballistic missile was believed to have landed in waters within the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) west of Hokkaido.

The launch, reported by both South Korean and Japanese officials, comes a day after a smaller missile launch by the North and its warning of “fiercer military responses” if the U.S. boosts its security presence in Asia.

U.S. Vice President, Kamala Harris and leaders of Japan, South Korea, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand condemned the launch at an emergency meeting called on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit on Friday.

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“We strongly condemn these actions and we again call for North Korea to stop further unlawful, destabilizing acts,” Harris said during the meeting, convened to discuss the launch.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned of further missile launches by the North and a possible nuclear test.

The South Korean military said that, in response to Friday’s launch, South Korean F-35A fighters and U.S. F-16 jets flew in formation off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula and conducted a firing drill against targets that simulated North Korea’s mobile missile launchers.

Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters on Friday that the missile was capable of flying as far as 15,000 km, while Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said it flew to an altitude of about 6,000 km with a range of 1,000 km, before landing in the sea roughly 200 kilometers west of Oshima-Oshima Island in Hokkaido.

South Korea’s military projected that the missile reached an altitude of 6,100 km and flew 1,000 km at a maximum speed of Mach 22.

Reacting to the incident, the Japanese defense ministry released a joint staff statement saying, “Japan Self-Defense Forces and US armed forces conducted a bilateral exercise… amid an increasingly severe security environment surrounding Japan,”

The tactical air drills followed “North Korea’s ICBM-class ballistic missile launch that landed within the Japanese Exclusive Economic Zone in the Sea of Japan”, the statement said.

“This bilateral exercise reaffirms the strong will between Japan and the United States to respond to any situation,” it added.

The exercise also “further strengthens the deterrence and response capabilities of the Japan-US Alliance”, the statement said.

There is around 55,000 US military personnel stationed in Japan, most in the southern region of Okinawa, with air bases in suburban Tokyo and in the northern Aomori region.


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