US: North Korea Short-Range Launch Not Provocation... Routine Test (Comprehensive)

This Weekend: Korea-US-Japan National Security Advisors Meeting

On the 16th, North Korea condemned the South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises and warned of the possibility of a breakdown in inter-Korean relations, including the annulment of the inter-Korean military agreement and the dismantling of the inter-Korean dialogue and exchange office. In a statement released through Korean Central Broadcasting and the Workers' Party's official newspaper Rodong Sinmun, Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the Workers' Party and sister of State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un, mentioned the joint exercises, saying, "No matter what the South Korean authorities do in accordance with their master's orders, the warm spring days of three years ago that they so long for will not easily return." The photo shows Kim Yo-jong visiting Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam, in March 2019. Photo by Yonhap News.

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] The United States has assessed that North Korea's short-range missile launches do not constitute a violation of UN Security Council resolutions or provocations.

This is interpreted as an intention to prevent the possibility of provoking North Korea before the completion of the review of North Korea policy.

A senior U.S. official stated this during a briefing on the 23rd (local time) following media reports that North Korea launched two short-range missiles last weekend.

The official said that North Korea's testing of various weapons systems is a routine exercise.

Last week, during the visits of U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to South Korea and Japan, North Korea sent a warning to the new U.S. administration through statements issued by Kim Yo-jong, Deputy Director of the Workers' Party, and Choe Son-hui, First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Meanwhile, the official said that the new U.S. North Korea policy review is nearly complete, and that a meeting with national security advisors from the U.S., South Korea, and Japan will be held this weekend for the final review.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.