Stop missile launch, N. Korea told

THE PHILIPPINES on Monday denounced North Korea firing a ballistic missile that flew over South Korea and Japan waters at the weekend, according to the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

“We call on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to immediately cease these activities and abide by all international obligations, including relevant United Security Council Resolutions, and to commit to peaceful and constructive dialogue,” the agency said in a statement.

North Korea’s Central News Agency has called the country’s Hwasong-19 as the “world’s strongest strategic missile” and “the perfected weapons system.”

The agency said North Korea Supreme Leader Jong observed the launch and said it was a response to “external threats” to North Korea’s security.

In July, the DFA condemned an earlier ballistic missile launch by the DPRK, urging it to keep the peace in the Indo-Pacific region and to pursue dialogue in the Korean Peninsula.

In 2021, the Senate ratified UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, making the Philippines the 53rd nation to adopt the treaty. The treaty, signed by 86 countries, took effect after it was ratified by at least 50 states.

The treaty bars nations from developing, testing, producing, manufacturing, transferring, possessing, stockpiling, using or threatening to use nuclear weapons.

“The Philippines wants to see lasting peace in the Korean Peninsula and echoes the calls of the international community for a complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the DPRK,” the DFA said. — John Victor D. Ordoñez