THE PHILIPPINES on Tuesday condemned North Korea’s ballistic missile test launch on Monday, urging it to keep the peace in the Indo-Pacific region and pursue dialogue in the Korean Peninsula.
In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the missile launch undermines peace, stability and economic progress in the Indo-Pacific region and Korean Peninsula.
“The Philippines has consistently supported the call for a complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK),” it said.
South Korea and Japan’s military chiefs on Monday said North Korea launched missiles 10 minutes apart in a northeastern direction from the town of Jangyon in southeastern North Korea, according to the Associated Press.
“The Philippines has repeatedly called on the DPRK to also comply with its international obligations and the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions and to commit to constructive and peaceful dialogue with the Republic of Korea,” the DFA said.
Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique A. Manalo in December said the country is pushing the creation of international guidelines on the ethical use of autonomous weapon systems powered by artificial intelligence (AI), saying their improper use could risk innocent lives.
Autonomous weapons are programmed to kill a specific target. The weapon is deployed to an environment where its AI searches for the target using sensor data such as facial recognition, according to autonomousweapons.org. — John Victor D. Ordoñez
