By Vihaan Majumdar
North Korea fired a ballistic missile that flew over Japan on Tuesday–which caused Japanese authorities to instruct its citizens to seek shelter–in a startling move that US, Japanese, and South Korean authorities believe was provocative in nature. This isn’t the first time, as a similar incident occurred in 2017. The US and South Korea quickly responded by carrying out missile launches of their own and military drills, with Japan following suit. On Friday, the US imposed new sanctions in connection with the missile launches and redeployed an aircraft carrier near the Korean peninsula, a move that South Korean authorities labeled as very unusual. North Korea decried the deployment of the carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, calling it a threat to their own national security, and defending the recent missile launches as a “righteous reaction” to joint military drills being carried out by the US and South Korea.
In a statement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that should North Korea continue the provocations, “it will only increase the condemnation, increase the isolation and increase the steps that are taken in response to their actions.”
