Perspective: TENSIONS IN KOREAN PENINSULA

North Korea launched two more ballistic missiles off its east coast on Monday with state news agency KCNA quoting the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un saying Pyongyang’s use of the Pacific as its firing range would depend on U.S. Forces action character. These launches comes just two days after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the sea off Japan’s west coast, praompting the United States to hold joint air exercises with South Korea and separately with Japan on Sunday. While Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida requested an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting over the tests, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff strongly condemned the launches as a grave provocation that should be ceased immediately.