all of these governments have come out effectively condemning the launch. take a listen to what a top official in japan had to say about this. i believe we have sound of him speaking. translator: the series of actions by north korea, including the repeated launches of ballistic missiles threaten the peace and security of our country, the region and the international community. such intense ballistic missile launches are in violation of relevant security council resolutions. and our country has made a strong protest to north korea through the embassy route in beijing. the north koreans, according to state media say they were testing the accuracy, safety, and operational effectiveness of this hwasong-12 type missile, one we don t believe has been launched really since 2017. michael? all right, ivan watson, we ll leave it there in hong kong for us. appreciate it. all right. now to the middle east, where