Japanese Top Diplomat Discusses Latest North Korean Missile Test With US State Secretary

TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th October, 2022) Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Tuesday that he had a telephone conversation with the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, condemned North Korea's latest missile launch and reaffirmed intention to expand Tokyo-Washington cooperation to completely denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

In early hours on Tuesday, media reported that North Korea fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile toward the Sea of Japan. The missile flew over Japan's territory and fell in the Pacific Ocean outside of the Japanese exclusive economic zone.

"Secretary Blinken strongly condemned these defiant acts when North Korea conducted four missile launches in one week and then fired the first missile in five years that flew over Japan. He called it an act that posed a serious threat to the security of Japan, as well as to the international community as a whole," the minister said during a press conference.

Hayashi also said that the sides agreed to expand cooperation to achieve complete denuclearization of the North Korea, as well as to improve the defense capabilities of the US-Japan alliance.

Earlier in the day, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said that Asian and Oceanian Affairs Department's director Takehiro Funakoshi had a telephone conversation with the US Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim and the South Korean Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Kim Gunn. The ministry added that the sides exchanged views on Pyongyang's latest missile launch and agreed to launch a response within the framework of the United Nations Security Council.

North Korea intensified launches of ballistic missiles and other projectiles in 2022. Since the beginning of the year, Pyongyang has conducted 23 missiles tests, including four tests last week, compared to eight missiles tests last year. Tuesday's test is the first missile launch over Japan since 2017.