January 16&18, 2022

The Japanese Communist Party denounced North Korea’s launch of two short-range missiles which landed in the Sea of Japan on January 14 and 17 for continuing to disregard UN Security Council resolutions regarding ballistic missile development and launches using ballistic missile technology.

The latest was the fourth missile launch by North Korea since the beginning of 2022, an extraordinarily high frequency of launches.

North Korea, after the breakdown of the 2nd summit talks with the U.S. in 2019, became aggressive with its missile tests. North Korea’s missile development is part of the nation’s project to develop nuclear capability. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in his address to the 8th Congress of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea held in January 2021 proclaimed that North Korea will develop tactical nuclear weapons and constantly move toward the production of super large nuclear warheads. However, in 2018 in the U.S.-North Korea and inter-Korean summit meetings, Kim expressed his desire to fully denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

The UN Security Council in past resolutions called for settling the issue of North Korea’s nuclear and missile development peacefully, diplomatically, and politically. The international community should work in unison to press Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear development and related activities.

Past related articles:
> Diplomacy is the most realistic option to avoid missile launches [October 26, 2021]
> JCP Koike: Int'l community should demand that N. Korea abandon nuclear weapons development [March 29, 2021]