Yoon orders joint response with US, Japan following N. Korea's ICBM launch
President Yoon Suk Yeol, fourth from left, attends a National Security Council meeting, Dec. 18. Courtesy of the presidential office.
President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday ordered a joint response with the United States and Japan to North Korea's long-range missile launch by using the countries' missile information sharing system.
Yoon made the instruction during an emergency meeting of the National Security Council presided over by National Security Adviser Cho Tae-yong.
"Utilizing the real-time information sharing system for North Korean missiles, we have to proactively push for South Korea, the U.S. and Japan's joint response," Yoon was quoted as saying by the presidential office.
The trilateral real-time system was agreed upon at the landmark Camp David summit in August, where Yoon, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida committed to operate the system by the end of the year.
The president also ordered an "immediate, overwhelming response" to any provocations by North Korea toward the South Korean territory and people.
Earlier in the day, North Korea fired a long-range missile into the East Sea in its fifth intercontinental ballistic missile launch this year. The latest launch came hours after the North fired a short-range missile from Pyongyang on Sunday.
The back-to-back missile launches also came just days after Seoul and Washington held the second session of the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) and agreed to complete the establishment of guidelines on the planning and operation of a shared nuclear strategy by the middle of next year.
Yoon also gave the instruction that the NCG's tasks be promptly pushed forward so that the joint nuclear deterrence capabilities of South Korea and the U.S. can be strengthened, his office said. (Yonhap)