By Song Sang-ho
WASHINGTON, March 10 (Yonhap) -- A U.S. military command condemned North Korea's ballistic missile launches Monday, calling on the recalcitrant regime to refrain from further "unlawful" and "destabilizing" acts and reaffirming America's "ironclad" security commitment to South Korea and Japan.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command issued the statement after the North fired multiple ballistic missiles toward the Yellow Sea in its first known missile launches since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January.
"The United States condemns these actions and calls on the DPRK to refrain from further unlawful and destabilizing acts," the command said, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"While we have assessed that this event does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel, or territory, or to our allies, we continue to monitor the situation. The U.S. commitments to the defense of the ROK and Japan remain ironclad," it added. ROK is short for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea.
The command noted that the U.S. is consulting closely over the launches with South Korea and Japan as well as other regional allies and partners.
The missile launches came as South Korea and the U.S. kicked off their annual Freedom Shield exercise on Monday for an 11-day run. The North has long decried the allies' drills as a rehearsal for an invasion against it.
This file photo, released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on April 3, 2024, shows an intermediate-range ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead being fired the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
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