MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/. Today’s ballistic missile launch by North Korea marks a departure from efforts to resolve issues facing the Korean Peninsula by political means, Deputy Speaker of the Russian Federation Council (the upper house of parliament) Konstantin Kosachev told TASS.
"Today's launch means an escalation of tensions one way or another, a step away from efforts to resolve issues politically. However, the ongoing US military presence in South Korea is also obviously not de-escalation. It is a vicious cycle that causes only regret and concern," the Russian senator pointed out. He stressed that it was possible to resolve the Korean Peninsula's issues solely through the goodwill of all parties and mutual efforts to ease the military standoff.
Kosachev added that apart from the two Koreas, it was first and foremost about the US.
According to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, earlier on Tuesday, North Korea launched a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan from the area of the city of Sinpo in the South Hamgyong Province. Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters that Tokyo believed Pyongyang to have launched two ballistic missiles. The South Korean military says that Pyongyang may have tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile. North Korea already launched this kind of missiles in 2015 and 2019. Today’s launch is North Korea's eighth one this year. In late September, Pyongyang test fired a new hypersonic missile called Hwasong-8 towards the Sea of Japan.