The foreign ministers of Malaysia and Japan pledged to work closely and cooperate to respond to missile and nuclear threats from North Korea.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Seyfeddin Abdullah and his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi spoke at a joint press conference after their bilateral meeting in the capital Kuala Lumpur.
“The frequent launches of ballistic missiles (by North Korea) pose a serious and imminent threat to the security of Japan and the (surrounding) region, and a clear and serious threat to the international community,” Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said in a statement.
The Foreign Ministers also agreed to enhance cooperation in areas such as health and education, as well as regional security issues.
North Korea had claimed that its recent missile tests were in “self-defense”.
North Korea, which conducted its 7th missile test in the last 2 weeks, launched a ballistic missile on October 4, which passed northeast of Japan for the first time since 2017 and fell into the Pacific Ocean.
In response to North Korea’s ballistic missile launch, the US and South Korea fired 4 surface-to-surface missiles into the East Sea (Sea of Japan) in joint exercises.
On the other hand, the US announced that the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, which left the Korean Peninsula after the joint naval exercise, would return to the East Sea on October 5.
Following this, North Korea launched two ballistic missiles in the direction of the East Sea on October 6.
For the first time in five years, the US, South Korea and Japan held an anti-submarine drill in international waters adjacent to the East Sea on September 30.
It is known that the Pyongyang regime has conducted more than 20 ballistic missile tests at different ranges since early 2022 in violation of United Nations (UN) resolutions.
