North Korea threat is critical, imminent: Japan to US, S Korea

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told his US and South Korean counterparts that they need to take different responses to address it.

The threat from North Korea has grown to a critical and imminent level and the United States, Japan and South Korea need to take different responses to address it, Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told his US and South Korean counterparts on Monday.

This photo distributed by the North Korean government shows what was said to be the launch of a Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile, ICBM, in North Korea's northwest, Tuesday, July 4, 2017. (AP File Photo)

“(The) threat posed by North Korea has grown to the unprecedented, critical and imminent level. Therefore, we have to take calibrated and different responses to meet with that level of threat,” he said, speaking through a translator, at the start of talks in the Philippines.