Japan Protests at North Korea Mock Missile Attack

Japan responded strogly against North Korea Mock Missile Attack through its diplomatic channel in Beijing, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga reported. 

The Japanese, US and South Korean Governments told the press the launch is an extremely dangerous act that violates the 2002 bilateral Pyongyang Declaration, a joint statement at six-party talks on North Korea and relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions. 

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for full cooperation with the United States and South Korea and provide information to the public swiftly. 

Mock Attack 

North Korea fired two short-range missiles into the sea as the US and South Korea kicked off joint military drills denounced by Pyongyang as recklessly confrontational. 

The two missiles, with a range of 490km (305 miles), were fired from the western city of Nampo, flew over the country before falling into the sea east of the Korean peninsula. 

Seoul and Washington describe the military exercises as defensive in nature while North Korea calls them a rehearsal for invasion. 

"The situation on the Korean peninsula is again inching close to the brink of a war. The only means to cope with the aggression and war by the US imperialists and their followers is neither dialogue nor peace. They should be dealt with only by merciless strikes" the North said. 

Experts say that Pyongyang is only ramping up the rhetoric ahead of US-South Korea military drills with South Korea and the United States playing a naval drill involving 10 South Korean warships and a US Aegis destroyer, with about 200,000 Korean and 3,700 US troops.