Tokyo
\nJapanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera urged caution on Friday because more provocation was possible from North Korea on October 10, when the start of lower house election campaigns in Japan coincides with one of the North\u2019s main anniversaries.<\/p>\n
Tensions have risen on the Korean peninsula since reclusive North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on September 3, leading to a new round of sanctions after a unanimous vote by the United Nations Security Council.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump has since traded insults with North Korean leaders, raising the stakes even further.<\/p>\n
North Korea has often marked significant events on its calendar by conducting weapons tests, such as its fifth nuclear test last year on September 9, its founding anniversary.<\/p>\n
Onodera said October 10 marks an important anniversary for North Korea. It is the date the North celebrates the founding of the North Korean communist party.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand it is an important anniversary for North Korea. We would like to maintain a sense of urgency,\u201d Onodera told reporters.<\/p>\n
October 10 is also coincidentally the same day that campaigns will begin in Japan for parliament\u2019s lower house election 12 days later after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dissolved the chamber on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Onodera\u2019s warning echoed a comment by South Korean national security adviser Chung Eui-yong, who said during a meeting with President Moon Jae-in on Thursday that he expected Pyongyang to act around October 10 and 18, but gave no details.<\/p>\n
October 18 marks the start of China\u2019s all-important Communist Party Congress.<\/p>\n
North Korea has conducted a series of ballistic missile launches this year, including two launches over Japan in recent weeks, in defiance of international pressure.<\/p>\n
China, North Korea\u2019s main ally and trading partner, has urged that dialogue is the only way to resolve the crisis, although Japan has tended to support Washington\u2019s more robust approach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tokyo Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera urged caution on Friday because more provocation was possible from North Korea on October 10, when the start of lower house election campaigns in Japan coincides with one of the North\u2019s main anniversaries. Tensions have risen on the Korean peninsula since reclusive North Korea conducted its sixth and most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6367,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6368,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6366\/revisions\/6368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}