Japan moved to the highest possible alert level after North Korea fired four ballistic missiles simultaneously into nearby waters, the latest provocation from Kim Jong Un’s regime.
Three of the missiles fell into Japan’s exclusive economic zone, with one dropping about 350 kilometers west of the nation’s northern Akita prefecture, government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters after a meeting of Japan’s National Security Council. Authorities were still analyzing the type of missile launched, he said.
The launches “clearly show that this is a new level of threat” from North Korea, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told lawmakers in Tokyo. American officials held phone calls afterward with counterparts in Japan and South Korea, which rely on the U.S. for security.
"North Korea’s nuclear and missile capabilities have really improved, and they are becoming more difficult to predict," Abe said. The missiles "are getting closer to Japan’s waters and territory."
While North Korea routinely test-fires missiles -- including more than two dozen last year -- the timing of these launches is particularly sensitive. Tensions have escalated in recent weeks between China and South Korea over American plans to deploy a missile-defense system known as Thaad on the peninsula, part of measures to thwart Kim from gaining the ability to strike the continental U.S. with a nuclear warhead.
Iran is the source of the vast majority of Israel’s security concerns, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday at an event commemorating the victims of a 1992 Iranian-sponsored terror attack against Israel in Argentina.
“Iran is the greatest generator of terrorism in the world in the world and we need to to fight this terror because it is just one arm of Iranian aggression, which also seeks nuclear weapons and advances its ballistic missiles program,” he said at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.
Tehran continues to destabilize the region and to threaten Israel with annihilation, he went on. “One of our defense officials estimates that more than 80 percent of our security problems emanate from Iran.”
On March 17, 1992, a suicide bomber killed 29 and wounded hundreds in front of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, in what still is the deadliest attack on an Israeli diplomatic mission. A group with ties to Iran and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah took responsibility for the bombing.
Speaking at the memorial event, Netanyahu — who is also foreign minister — said Jerusalem knew right away that Tehran was behind the attack.
“Iran initiated, Iran planned, and Iran, through its henchman Hezbollah, also executed it.”
Another example of Iranian sponsorship of terrorism followed two years later when the AMIA Jewish community center was bombed, killing 85 people and injuring hundreds, the prime minister said.
“We warned then of the growing monster of terrorism, sponsored by Iran, which sends metastases throughout the entire world, and it is still here,” he said. “Since the attack in Argentina, Iran and its proxy Hezbollah created a network of terror.”
Addressing a hall full of diplomats, dignitaries and family members of the killed Israelis, Netanyahu said that Israeli diplomatic missions are under constant threat. Israel is thwarting planned attacks all the time, he said, vowing not to be deterred by Iran’s efforts to harm Israelis stationed across the world.
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