Moscow asserted that Japan's approach to remilitarizing the country "creates additional security risks on Russia's borders in the Far East."
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in statements to the RIA Novosti agency published today (Saturday): “We have repeatedly stressed to the Japanese side that this trend raises grave concern, especially since these steps create additional security risks for the borders of the Russian Federation in the Far East, and have direct negative repercussions on stability and security in the Asia-Pacific region as a whole.”
The ministry pointed out that Tokyo officially announced plans to use the “Type-25” attack missile systems, which were deployed on Japanese territory several months ago, during the joint Japanese-American “Ken Sword-27” exercises scheduled to take place this October.
The ministry said: “It is clear that within the framework of the approach adopted by Japan to remilitarize the country, activities in the military field have lost their previous purely defensive character.”
Seoul announced Saturday that North Korea had fired at least one ballistic missile, a day after Pyongyang accused South Korea of "despicableness" for demanding that the North apologize for a mine explosion in the demilitarized zone.
The South Korean Army Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that “our army detected the launch of a ballistic missile from the Wonsan region of North Korea towards the East Sea,” using the Korean name for the Sea of Japan.
Pyongyang denied responsibility for a landmine explosion last month that injured three South Korean soldiers inside the demilitarized zone, a buffer zone planted with mines that has separated the two Koreas since the signing of the armistice agreement in 1953.
Seoul and the UN force command said the explosion was caused by North Korean mines that were planted on the South Korean side of the border.
Earlier this week, the South Korean military demanded that North Korea issue an official apology.
The next day, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who supports the opening-up policy, urged Pyongyang to return to dialogue.
But Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of the North Korean leader, on Friday described Seoul as “despicable,” denying her country’s connection to the mine explosion.
Pakistani and Indian media reported that Indian border guard forces shot two Pakistani citizens near the border in the Punjab province on Friday, killing them, which increases tension between the two neighboring countries a year and a half after they retreated from the brink of war in disputed Kashmir.
Pakistani television, citing Pakistani security sources, said that three unarmed civilians, residents of the Kasur region in eastern Pakistan, took a few steps beyond one of the border signs, when members of the Indian Border Security Force opened fire on them.
Television reported that two of them were killed and the third was wounded, according to what was reported by the Associated Press.
There was no immediate comment from New Delhi, but Indian media reported a conflicting story, stating that there was suspicion that the men were trying to enter India.
The shooting came a day after the Pakistani army cast doubt on India's announcement that its security forces had killed a prominent leader of the extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba in the part of Kashmir under Indian control, as the army presented a man it said India had mistakenly identified as the dead militant.
