Pentagon chief blasts North Korea’s ‘flagrant violation’ of missile test rules
A Pentagon chief has lambasted the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un after the country fired two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan.
The launch, which sent parts of the world into a frenzy, occurred on Thursday, March 25. It was described by the intelligence official as "a flagrant violation of regional security and Security Council resolutions," during an interview with Sky News.
Also, the weekend prior to the launch and just days before North Korea launched two short-range missiles, but the Biden administration played down the event.
However, the two further launches were seen as the first real test of the Biden administration.
South Korea's joint chiefs of staff said the missiles were fired at around 7.06am and 7.25am, local time, from the North's eastern coast, reports The Sun.
On Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked whether Biden would meet with Kim Jong-un to begin diplomatic steps.
Referring to President Biden she said: “I think his approach would be quite different, and that is not his intention.”
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This followed Biden suggesting at his first solo press conference on the Monday before that he would potentially meet with the dictator.
He told the gathering media and officials that there will be "responses if they choose to escalate," but also added that he was "prepared for some form of diplomacy, but it has to be conditioned upon the end result of denuclearisation."
North Korea is highly critical of the joint military exercises between the US and South Korea, one of which recently concluded.
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Earlier this month, Kim Jong-un's sister launched a verbal offensive against the superpower and the threat of invasion.
Kim Yo-jong told Washington: “If it wants to sleep in peace for [the] coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink…”
In a recent escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula, on Tuesday North Korea reportedly called South Korea's president "a parrot raised by America" resuming its trademark rhetoric against its rivals.
North Korea also recently cut diplomatic relations with Malaysia for extraditing insider Mun Chol-muong, 55, to face justice in Washington.
Mun reportedly lived in the south east Asian country for ten years and faces six charges of money laundering after allegedly using his cover as a businessman to conceal the sale to North Korea of goods banned under UN sanctions.
North Korea's ballistic missiles are banned under United Nations Security Council Resolutions.
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