President Yoon: North Korea’s Provocations Will Only Strengthen ROK-US-Japan Safety and Security Cooperation

According to a foregin source on October 4th, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said on October 4th that North Korea’s launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile has “clearly violated the universal principles and norms of the United Nations.” The President also urged to have a meeting on strengthening the U.S. commitment to extend deterrence and raise the level of security cooperation between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan in response to North Korea’s nuclear missile issue.

Earlier, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said at around 7:23 a.m., a suspected medium-range ballistic missile passing over Japan was launched from the Mupyong-ri area of Jagang Province. North Korea has launched a total of five missiles in the last 10 days.

President Yoon attended the National Security Council that morning, saying North Korea’s nuclear and missile provocations will only further strengthen security cooperation within and outside the region, including South Korea, the U.S. and Japan. He hoped to cooperate with the U.S. and the international community to advance corresponding measures. It is reported that President Yoon had involved in the situation report and examined the response plan.

The participants made it clear that North Korea’s continued provocations cannot be ignored and will pay a price, and decided to explore various containment options against North Korea with the international community, including strengthening sanctions against North Korea, based on close inter-Korean-US cooperation, South Korea’s Office of National Security said in a report.

It also said that recently the South Korean military and joint South Korea-US assets have immediately detected and tracked all North Korean ballistic missile launches, confirming the posture of thoroughly responding to any North Korean provocation.