Global Courant
ISTANBUL
North Korea has once again chosen not to participate in a multilateral security forum amid new missile launches that have drawn condemnation from South Korea and Japan.
Pyongyang did not participate in the annual Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD), also referred to as the Track 1.5 safety forum.
The Forum brings together government representatives and civilian experts from the two Koreas, the USA, China, Japan and Russia. Pyongyang last attended the meeting in 2016 and is represented by Choe Son-hui, who is currently serving as foreign minister.
The event took place Monday at the University of California San Diego as North Korea launched two ballistic missiles into the East Sea.
“Our military detected two ballistic missiles that North Korea fired into the East Sea from areas near Pyongyang at 23:55 (1455GMT) on the 24th and at midnight on the 25th,” the South Korean Chiefs of Staff said.
The missile launches came after the second US nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Annapolis, made a port visit to a naval base on the southern Korean island of Jeju on Monday.
Last week, a nuclear-powered US submarine, the USS Kentucky, visited the port of Busan in South Korea for the first time since 1981. He left South Korea on Friday.
In response, Pyongyang fired missiles twice on Wednesday and Saturday and threatened preemptive strikes, triggering a fierce reaction from Seoul, which warned of “end the regime” in North Korea on such action.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned North Korea’s latest missile launch in Tokyo and accused Pyongyang of violating UN Security Council resolutions. The resolutions prohibit North Korea from launching ballistic missiles.
According to Kyodo News, Kishida said Pyongyang’s “provocations threaten the peace and stability of Japan, the region and the international community.”
Chun Young-hee, head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Korean Peninsula Peace Regime Bureau, said Pyongyang’s actions “threaten the international community with its continued nuclear and missile development”.
Speaking at the NEACD forum in California, Chun stressed that Pyongyang was “tolerating the dire humanitarian plight of its own people while advancing its weapons programs”.
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