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- North Korea’s United Nations envoy Kim Song defends at the UN General Assembly in New York the country’s right to test missiles
- South Korea’s military reports North Korea has fired a projectile, thought to be a ballistic missile, into the waters off its east coast
- North Korea has already launched missiles on various occasions this month
North Korea is reported to have fired a projectile, thought to be a ballistic missile, as its envoy to the United Nations defended the country’s weapons program.
South Korea’s military reported the projectile was fired into waters off its east coast early on Tuesday morning.
Shortly afterwards, in New York, North Korea’s United Nations envoy Kim Song defended the country’s weapons program.
“Nobody can deny the righteous right to self-defense for the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] to develop, test, manufacture and possess the weapon systems, equivalent to the ones which are possessed or being developed by them,” Mr Song said.
So far this year, not including the projectile reported today, North Korea has fired at least six missiles. The latest launch occurred on September 15, when China's foreign minister was in Soeul discussing nuclear diplomacy with the north.
Days earlier, on September 11 and 12, two missiles were launched as Japan, South Korea and the US prepared for trilateral talks in Tokyo regarding peace on the Korean peninsula.
In March this year, while the Biden Administration was in the process of reviewing the US policy towards Pyongyang, two missiles were launched from North Korea.
And in January this year, Pyongyang paraded a new submarine-launched ballistic missile days before US President Biden's inauguration.
