Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi submitted a protest to the United States today (Sunday) after a US Marine was arrested on suspicion of committing two crimes of robbery and murder against a Japanese woman in Okinawa.
Japanese police said that Devin Jacob Ballard (20 years old) is the suspect in the killing of Anna Yagi (39 years old) in a hotel in Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture, yesterday (Saturday), and stealing her wallet and bag.
Police added that Ballard denied the accusations against him. “It is extremely unfortunate that such a brutal and evil incident occurred,” Takaichi said in a statement.
She continued: “The Japanese government strongly protests to the American side, and strongly demands maximum cooperation with the investigation, and also demands tightening discipline and implementing comprehensive rules and procedures to prevent this from happening again.”
The US Embassy and the Marine Corps expressed their condolences and affirmed cooperation with the Japanese authorities.
The Marine Corps announced in a statement that the suspect, who is serving at Futenma Marine Air Base, in the far south of Japan, is in the custody of Japanese authorities.
The statement added: “The Marine Corps takes such accusations seriously, and expects every member of the Marine Corps to adhere to the highest standards of proper conduct.”
Most of the US Marines serving in Japan (numbering about 18,000) are stationed on the island of Okinawa, which was under US control from the end of World War II until 1972.
Their presence has repeatedly aroused residents' dissatisfaction, due to problems such as noise, plane crashes, and the behavior of soldiers.
The rape of a 12-year-old Okinawa girl by three American soldiers in 1995 led to the outbreak of mass protests.
Okinawa is about 100 kilometers from Taiwan at the closest point, and therefore it constitutes an essential pillar in the eyes of Tokyo and Washington to deter any potential military aggression from China.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accompanied by his daughter, supervised the launch of a ballistic missile that allegedly used artificial intelligence, state media reported on Sunday.
The North Korean News Agency reported that the missile hit a target 1,000 kilometers away at sea, and that the exercise was aimed at testing and training forces operating a strategic hypersonic weapons system.
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of the North Korean leader, announced that the missile that was launched on Saturday “is capable of changing its flight path at low altitude, and artificial intelligence technology has been integrated into it,” without providing further details, according to what Agence France-Presse reported.
The South Korean army monitored the missile launch from an area surrounding the eastern coastal city of Wonsan early Saturday morning, noting that it traveled a distance of more than 700 kilometers.
Kim said after supervising the launch: “Through today’s launch test, the strategic missile soldiers demonstrated their professional qualifications and their readiness to fully launch a counterattack,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
He added: "We must continue our responsible efforts without stopping to make the enemy realize permanently and repeatedly the extent of the reliability and lethality of our strategic offensive means."
Pictures published by the Korean Agency showed a missile launching into the sky amid a glow of orange flame.
Another photo showed a smiling Kim, alongside his daughter, Jo Ae, and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, who appeared to be clapping in celebration.
Jo Ae, who appeared in public for the first time in 2022, is considered the most likely candidate to succeed her father, according to the South Korean intelligence agency, which based this assessment on her growing role in major official and military occasions.
The Central News Agency reported that the launch was carried out with the aim of training soldiers operating a “hypersonic strategic weapons system.”
This step came days after the South Korean army demanded that Pyongyang apologize for a landmine explosion last month that injured three South Korean soldiers in the demilitarized zone, in an incident for which Seoul held the North responsible.
Pyongyang denied responsibility for the explosion, and on Friday described South Korea as “despicable.”
