US to sell arms to Japan, South Korea

US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he will permit the sale of highly sophisticated military equipment to Japan and South Korea, two neighbours of North Korea threatened by its regime's latest nuclear trials.

"I am allowing Japan & South Korea to buy a substantially increased amount of highly sophisticated military equipment from the United States," Trump tweeted, reported Efe news agency.

According to the US law dealing with arms exports, the President must inform Congress 30 days before authorising the sale of armaments worth $14 million or more, though exceptions have existed to facilitate the sale of arms to Japan.

The President's statement came after North Korea carried out its sixth nuclear test Sunday and the most powerful yet -- supposedly a hydrogen bomb -- which, according to Pyongyang, it could mount on one of its intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The growing intensity of arms trials by North Korea, which last Tuesday launched a missile that flew over northern Japan before falling into the Pacific Ocean, has been condemned by the international community and threatens to unleash an arms escalation in the region.

--IANS

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