Japan has assured that it will strengthen cooperation with its allies to stop the aggressions of the Kim Jong-un regime

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishidaassured this Thursday that his country will seek to “collaborate even more closely” with the International community maintaining stability in the region, following the relaunch of a ballistic missile speak North Korean diet.

“I am not in a position to specify what North Korea’s intentions are.but I believe that maintaining peace and stability in the region is a very important issue and that we need to work even more closely with our allies and like-minded countries,” Kishida said in statements collected by the public channel NHK.

The Japanese president made the comments upon his arrival at the office of the japanese prime ministerthe Kantei, shortly after detecting the launch of a missile that the first analyzes of the two Japan as South Korea point out that it was a intercontinental ballistic projectile (ICBM), sacked by the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Pyongyang launched a long-range missile at approximately 7:10 a.m. Tokyo and Seoul local time from the area of The namein the North Korean capital region, according to details released by the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

He Ministry of Defense of Japanwhose test authorities also detected, reported that the projectile flew for approximately 69 minutes and landed in the waters of the Sea of ​​Japan around 8:18 a.m. local time about 250 kilometers west of Oshima Islandoff the southwest coast of Hokkaido (north) and outside its territorial waters and economic exclusion.

Japanese Chief of Defense Yasukazu Hamadanoted that Japan is in coordination with South Korea and the United States to collect and analyze information on this Thursday’s launch, which did not cause any incident with any vessel.

North Korea’s eighth event of the year also comes amid military drills freedom shield from Seoul and Washington, which Pyongyang sees as a rehearsal to invade its territory and to which it has promised to give an “unprecedented” response.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeolarrived in Japan on Thursday for a summit-focused visit with his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, in a moment of bilateral rapprochement.

Yoon arrived around 11:30 a.m. local time at Haneda International Airportin Tokyo, with his wife and his first lady, Kim Keon-heein a private plane.

It is the first visit in 12 years that a South Korean president has made to Japan for a bilateral summit.at a time when the two neighbors are trying to improve their relationship.

Yoon’s two-day visit comes less than two weeks after Seoul announced a plan to resolve the long-running dispute between the two countries over the compensation for Koreans forced to perform forced labor for Japanese companies during the Japanese colonial rule of Korea between 1910 and 1945.

Under this scheme, a public foundation affiliated with South Korean Ministry of Interior It will compensate those affected with donations from domestic companies that benefited from donations made by Japan based on a bilateral compensation agreement signed in 1965.

The plan, applauded by Tokyo, sparked protests among the victims and rejection by many South Koreans due to the lack of participation by Japanese conglomerates.

Yoon expressed his desire to move forward in improving relations with Japan, which he sees as essential to restore bilateral economic exchanges and to effectively respond to and counter North Korea’s weapons development. .

The rise to power of the conservative Yoon in May 2022 and the weapon advances of Pyongyang which a few hours before its departure for Tokyo carried out its eighth missile test this year, serve to strengthen cooperation, particularly in the military field, after a period in which relations between Seoul and Tokyo have experienced their worst moment for years. years.

(With information from EFE)

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