South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol warned Wednesday that North Korea will be made to pay a price for carrying out an illicit ballistic missile launch as he presided over an emergency meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) during a trip to Lithuania.
The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired a long-range ballistic missile into the East Sea at around 10 a.m., the latest provocation amid tensions caused by the reclusive regime's accusations against U.S. spy aircraft operations earlier this week.
During the virtual NSC meeting, Yoon told aides to make the point clear that illegal acts by North Korea will come with a price. He also ordered the strengthening of the U.S. "extended deterrence" commitment through the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) that Yoon and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed to create to discuss nuclear and strategic planning, according to his office.
Yoon is visiting Vilnius this week to attend a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit.
"President Yoon Suk Yeol stressed that our military is maintaining a firm South Korea-U.S. combined defense posture that can deter and respond to any North Korean threat, and ordered the further strengthening of the extended deterrence implementation in line with the Washington Declaration through the South Korea-U.S. NCG meeting planned for July 18," the presidential office said in a press release, referring to the inaugural NCG session scheduled to be held in Seoul.
"He also stressed that it should be known clearly that North Korea's illegal nuclear and missile development will face an even stronger response and sanctions from the international community," it continued. "President Yoon Suk Yeol made clear that North Korea's illegal acts come with a price and ordered the further expansion of South Korea-U.S.-Japan security cooperation, including the real-time sharing of missile warning data between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, and trilateral maritime missile defense exercises."
The NSC members strongly condemned the North's continued long-range ballistic missile launches as a "grave violation" of U.N. Security Council resolutions, and a "serious provocation" threatening peace and safety on the Korean Peninsula and beyond.
They also warned the Kim Jong-un regime will face an increasingly dark future the more it obsesses over its reckless nuclear adventurism in neglect of its people's livelihoods.
They further noted the latest launch demonstrates the importance of solidarity between like-minded nations, and vowed to strengthen military information sharing and cyber security cooperation with NATO while also increasing cooperation with Indo-Pacific nations, including Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
Source: Yonhap News Agency