Chi, Russia begin val drills near North Korea

BEIJING, Sept 18: Chi and Russia began val drills near North Korea on Monday amid continuing tensions over the isolated state’s nuclear ambitions and ahead of a United tions General Assembly meeting this week, where North Korea is likely to loom large.

North Korea launched a missile over Japan last Friday, its second in the past three weeks, and conducted its sixth and by far most powerful nuclear test on September 3, in defiance of intertiol pressure.

The official Xinhua news agency said the joint exercises will take place between Peter the Great Bay, just outside of the Russian far eastern port of Vladivostok, not far from the Russia-North Korea border, and into the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk, to the north of Japan. The drills are the second part of Chi-Russian val exercises this year, the first part of which took place in the Baltic in July. The report did not directly link the drills to current tensions over North Korea.

Both Chi and Russia have repeatedly called for a peaceful solution and talks to resolve the issue. The intertiol community must remain united and enforce sanctions against North Korea after its repeated launch of ballistic missiles, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in an editorial published in the New York Times on Sunday. (Agencies)