US approves missile sales to SKorea, Japan
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Sat, 18 May 2019 13:37:35 +0000
WASHINGTON, D.C.: The United States said on Friday (Saturday in Manila) it had approved more than $600 million in sales of air defense missiles to South Korea and Japan as tensions return with North Korea.
The State Department said it had approved 94 SM-2 missiles used by ships against air threats, along with 12 guidance systems for a total cost of $313.9 million.
It separately gave the green light to sell 160 anti-air AMRAAM missiles and related guidance equipment to Japan for $317 million.
The sales “will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States” by assisting key allies and “will not alter the basic military balance in the region,” a State Department statement said.
North Korea last week tested what the South Korean military said appeared to be two short-range missiles in its second launch in less than a week.
The tests come amid a standstill in negotiations between North Korea and the United States, where President Donald Trump had boasted of ending Pyongyang’s missile tests.
A second summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended in deadlock in February, with the US side refusing demands to ease sanctions until Pyongyang takes major steps to end its nuclear program.
‘Gangster’ US
Meanwhile, North Korea has demanded the United Nations take “urgent measures” to help return a cargo ship taken by the United States, calling the seizure a “heinous” act.
Washington announced last week it had taken possession of the North Korean-registered bulk carrier M/V Wise Honest — a year after it was detained in Indonesia — citing sanctions-violating activities.
In a letter sent on Friday to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Kim Song — Pyongyang’s permanent representative at the UN — said the incident was “an unlawful and outrageous act,” according to North Korea’s state news agency KCNA.
“This act of dispossession has clearly indicated that the United States is indeed a gangster country that does not care at all about international laws,” the letter said.
The North Korean representative asked Guterres to “take urgent measures as a way of contributing to the stability of the Korean peninsula and proving the impartiality of the UN.”
Earlier this week, Pyongyang had slammed the seizure as an “outright denial” of the spirit of a statement signed by Kim and Trump at their first summit in Singapore last year.
North Korea is sanctioned under multiple UN Security Council resolutions for its nuclear and missile programs, and lifting of some of the measures was a key demand from Pyongyang at the second Trump-Kim summit in February that ultimately broke down without a deal. AFP
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