North Korea[/B] has launched a missile of unknown type, announced today by South Korea's general staff of national defense and the Japanese authorities. This is the third test of such a weapon system that Pyongyang has conducted in less than ten days.
The projectile was directed eastward towards the sea, the staff explained. Pyongyang conducted two missile launches, which it claimed were supersonic, on Jan. 5 and Jan. 11. The Japanese coast guard noted that it recorded the launch at 14:55 (local time 07:55 Cyprus time) by North Korea of "what appeared to be one or more ballistic missiles."
A Japanese coast guard spokesman told Agence France-Presse that an analysis of where the missile landed and whether it was one or several is still underway. Earlier, the Japanese coast guard said a missile or missiles fell or landed on land, without specifying whether it meant on land on one of the islands in the Japanese archipelago or not.
The second test, attended by the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, led to the imposition of new US sanctions against five individuals linked to North Korea's ballistic missile development programme.
A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman accused the US of seeming determined to "deliberately escalate" the situation. If Washington "adopts such confrontational behavior," Pyongyang "will be obliged to react in a more forceful manner," a North Korean diplomatic spokesman asserted, according to the country's official KCNA news agency.
Source: KCNA
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