The UN Security Council calls on the international community to condemn North Korea's attitude and abandon its nuclear weapons programme

North Korea launches two more ballistic missiles as USS Ronald Reagan returns to the Sea of Japan

photo_camera AP/LEE JIN-MAN - The US aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan in port in Busan, South Korea

Tensions continue to rise on the Korean peninsula. The Pyongyang regime has launched two more ballistic missiles, one of which has travelled a distance of 350 kilometres with a height of 80 kilometres, while the other flew a distance of 800 kilometres and a height of 60 kilometres before falling into the waters of the Sea of Japan.

The launch comes after North Korea has accused Washington and Seoul of raising military tension in the area with the latest trilateral naval exercises with Japanese warships and the return of the US aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, to the waters of the Sea of Japan, as the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Once again, condemnation was swift. South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol denounced the launch and said that his country would guarantee its security through its alliance with the United States and cooperation with Japan. A US State Department spokesman called the latest launch a violation of UN Security Council resolutions and a threat to regional neighbours and the international community.

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"This absolutely cannot be tolerated", said Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. "North Korea has relentlessly and unilaterally intensified its provocation, especially since the beginning of this year," said Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada.  

Japan also lamented the division in the UN Security Council over North Korea's increased missile launches. "It is regrettable that the Council cannot act on these provocative acts, so we will continue to cooperate with the international community to ensure that North Korea fulfils all the obligations of the Council's resolutions," said Japan's deputy government spokesman Seiji Kihara at a press conference, who also called on the Council to "assume its responsibility and role in maintaining peace and security".

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However, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield made a clear call at an emergency meeting of the UN General Council. "We call on all members of the United Nations, especially those on the Security Council, to join us in condemning this reckless behaviour and urging the DPRK to completely, verifiably and irreversibly abandon its illegal weapons programmes and engage in diplomacy toward denuclearisation," the US ambassador said. 

This division in the UN Security Council came as China and Russia vetoed a US-led push in May to impose more UN sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile launches. 

In less than two weeks, Kim Jong-un's regime has fired six projectiles and more than 40 so far this year. The latest of these was Tuesday's, which set the record distance in the history of the North Korean arsenal with a distance covered of 4,500 kilometres. This missile, which flew over Japan, forced the inhabitants of northern Japan to take shelter underground and rail traffic to stop.

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In response, hours later four South Korean F-15Ks and four US Air Force F-16s dropped two joint direct attack bombs on a target in the Yellow Sea. "This training focuses on mastering stop, track and intercept procedures through shared target information in a ballistic missile provocation scenario", the South Korean military said in a statement. 

However, it was the entry of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan into international waters in the Sea of Japan that set off alarm bells in the Pyongyang regime, as reported by the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Americas Coordinator: José Antonio Sierra.

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