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October 8 (UPI) – North Korea Tokyo confirmed on Saturday that it was holding joint exercises with the U.S. Navy in waters off Japan, defending its latest missile test as a self-defense action against a military threat.
North Korea’s National Aviation Administration said the country’s continued launching of ballistic missiles over or near international air routes is a “regular and planned self-defense step to defend national security and regional peace from direct U.S. military threats.” It’s been more than half. A century.”
Nationwide statement Previously, the ICAO condemned North Korea for continuing to launch ballistic missiles over or near international air routes.
North Korea has conducted multiple weapons tests over the past two weeks, including early Thursday it fired two ballistic missiles into the waters between the peninsula and Japan. Since the beginning of this year, North Korea has conducted more than 20 ballistic missile tests in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
North Korean spokesman Say Pyongyang “categorically condemns and rejects” the ICAO statement, calling it “a political provocation against the United States and its vassals aimed at violating North Korea’s sovereignty.”
He said Tuesday’s ballistic missile launch over the Japanese archipelago was a “just response” to last month’s “extremely provocative and threatening” U.S.-South Korea military exercises involving aircraft carriers.
Nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan It participated in a joint exercise with the South Korean navy from September 26 to 29, and then on September 30 in the first anti-submarine exercise between the two countries and Japan in the Sea of Japan in five years.
Ministry of Defense of Japan Confirmed on Saturday Its Maritime Self-Defense Force and the U.S. Navy continued to hold joint military exercises in the region “aimed at strengthening deterrence capabilities in the face of North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile launches”.
The exercise, which began over the weekend, involved a Japanese destroyer and four U.S. Navy ships, including the USS Ronald Reagan, the ministry said.
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