Monitoring Desk
SEOUL: North Korea’s military fired at least one ballistic missile into the sea off its east coast on Tuesday, per multiple reports.
Why it matters: Pyongyang’s latest in a series of recent missile launches happened hours after U.S. officials emphasized their commitment to restart negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, which have stalled since talks broke down during the Trump administration, AP notes.
- Sung Kim, President Biden’s special envoy for North Korea, is due to hold meetings with U.S. allies in South Korean capital Seoul on the matter this week.
- The detected launch also forced Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to stop campaigning for the country’s Oct. 31 general election and cast a shadow over a “major arms fair” in Seoul, Reuters notes.
Details: Officials in South Korea and Japan reported detecting the missile launch about 10:17 a.m. local time “from the vicinity of Sinpo,” a North Korean test site for submarine-launched missiles, Reuters reports.
- The South Korean military said it’s “closely monitoring the situation and maintaining readiness posture in close cooperation with the United States, to prepare for possible additional launches.”
What they’re saying: Sung Kim told reporters Monday that the U.S. intent “remains the same”: to restart negotiations without any ill will toward Pyongyang, per AP.
- “We are open to meeting without preconditions,” Sung Kim said.
- The envoy added that while the U.S. was open to dialogue, “we also have a responsibility to implement the UN Security Council resolutions” on North Korea.
Courtesy: (Axios)
