North Korea conducts rocket launch as US carrier docks in Bosan: Seoul
South Korea says the North conducted a rocket launch on Tuesday, on the same day a US carrier strike group docked in the South's largest port.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff JCS said the military “detected at 10:43 pm local time (13:43 GMT) one alleged military surveillance satellite.”
It said a North Korean rocket flew above international waters off the Korean Peninsula’s west coast and then over the Japanese island of Okinawa toward the Pacific Ocean.
Tokyo briefly issued a J-Alert missile warning for the southern region of Okinawa, urging residents to take shelter inside buildings or underground.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's office posted a message on X: "North Korea has launched a suspected ballistic missile.”
State Minister of Defense Hiroyuki Miyazawa, said Japan was "analyzing whether it is a failure or a success. We are unable to say anything with certainty."
South Korea claimed that the launch was Pyongyang’s third attempt this year to put a military reconnaissance satellite into orbit.
The office of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is in London for a state visit, said Pyongyang appears "pretty confident that it'll be a success, though we have to wait and see whether that'll be the case.”
Pyongyang has yet to comment on the report.
North Korea’s reported launch comes as the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier arrived at South Korea's port city of Bosan as part of an agreement between Washington and Seoul to promote the “regular visibility” of US military assets in the country, the Ministry of Defense said in a news release Tuesday.
It said the deployment signals a “combined defense posture” against North Korea.
Citing a Japanese Coast Guard spokesman, Stars and Stripes, said the military was notified by Pyongyang of a scheduled launch over the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and east of Luzon, Philippines, between Wednesday and Dec. 1.
The US carrier group is the third Navy carrier to visit the peninsula so far this year. It is capable of carrying roughly 5,000 sailors and 70 aircraft, according to the Navy.
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