The Chinese authorities have asked this Thursday to "preserve peace and stability" on the Korean peninsula after the new launches carried out by the North Korean Army throughout the morning, in the framework of a ballistic test with short-range missiles aimed toward the Sea of Japan, also called the East Sea.
The spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Guo Jiakun, pointed out at a press conference that Beijing trusts that all the parties involved "examine frankly the deep-rooted causes of the existing problem on the Korean peninsula", according to the newspaper 'Global Times'.
Guo also underscored the need to "maintain a firm course toward a political solution" that allows tensions in the region to be reduced, and called on both Seoul and Pyongyang to "take measures to preserve peace" and avoid an open conflict between the two, which remain technically at war because a peace treaty has never been signed after the Korean War (1950-1953).
With Thursday's launches, the North Korean regime seeks to once again display its military capability just six days after the South Korean Government raised the holding of bilateral military talks aimed at preventing incidents on the border.
The missiles were located around 12:30 p.m. (local time) after being fired from the vicinity of the coastal city of Wonsan and traveled approximately 250 kilometers, according to the data provided by the South Korean Army.
The South Korean Armed Forces, in close coordination with the intelligence services of the United States and Japan, have increased surveillance in view of the possibility of new launches and are carrying out a detailed analysis of this ballistic test.
This episode represents the seventeenth ballistic missile launch carried out by North Korea so far this year and coincides with the lack of response from Pyongyang to the formal offer presented in September by the South Korean Ministry of Defense.