The United Kingdom, which currently holds the chairmanship of the UN Security Council, announced on Thursday night that the Security Council will meet in New York on Thursday to discuss North Korea’s latest missile test. It is happening at the request of the USA, Albania, France, Japan, Malta and Great Britain. On Wednesday, the US, South Korea and Japan condemned the North Korean missile test. Ballistic missile The missile was of the Hwasong-18 type, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, citing a message from the North Korean state news agency KCNA. The intercontinental ballistic missile flew for 1,001 kilometers and reached an altitude of 6,648 kilometers, according to the reports. The rocket flew for 74 minutes before falling into the sea at 11:13 local time on Wednesday, about 550 kilometers east of North Korea and west of Japan’s economic zone, about 250 kilometers west of Okushiri Island in northern Japan. Wednesday’s launch was the second in a month and the twelfth so far this year, according to Reuters. At 74 minutes, this may have been the longest flight time for a North Korean missile ever, according to the news agency. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was present during the launch, according to KCNA. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un July 13, 2023 Photo: Reuters NATO summit South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who was in Lithuania in connection with the NATO summit, called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the launch. He also promised to use the summit as an opportunity to ask for international solidarity in the face of such threats. Security in the Atlantic and Pacific regions must be seen together, he stated. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was also in Japan at the time of the missile test. Submarine The launch on Wednesday took place after North Korea had criticized US military activities in the days before. North Korea accused the United States, among other things, of violating the country’s airspace by sending spy planes into the country’s economic zone. North Korea has also criticized the United States for a recent visit to South Korea by a nuclear-powered submarine that can be equipped with cruise missiles. The UN Security Council and a number of countries have imposed sanctions on North Korea because of the country’s missile and nuclear weapons programme.
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