Failed missile test raises tensions

Launch comes hours after UN Security Council meeting on escalating weapons program

SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of — A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch early today, South Korea and the United States said, the second such test-fire flop in recent weeks but a clear message of defiance as a U.S. supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters.

North Korean ballistic missile tests are banned by the United Nations because they’re seen as part of the North’s push for a nuclear-tipped missile that can strike the U.S. mainland. The latest test came as U.S. officials pivoted from a hard line to diplomacy at the UN in an effort to address what may be Washington’s most pressing foreign policy challenge.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter: “North Korea disrespected the wishes of China & its highly respected President when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad!”

The timing of the North’s test was striking: Only hours earlier the UN Security Council held a ministerial meeting on Pyongyang’s escalating weapons program. North Korean officials boycotted the meeting, which was chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the missile flew for several minutes and reached a maximum height of 71 kilometres before it apparently failed. It said the missile was fired from an area near Pukchang, just north of the capital Pyongyang.

The launch comes at a point of particularly high tension. Trump took an initial hard line with Pyongyang and sent a nuclearpowered submarine and the USS Carl Vinson aircraft supercarrier to Korean waters. His diplomats have since pivoted and are now taking a softer tone.

Meanwhile, on Friday the United States and China offered starkly different strategies for addressing North Korea’s escalating nuclear threat as Trump’s top diplomat demanded full enforcement of economic sanctions on Pyongyang and urged new penalties. Stepping back from suggestions of U.S. military action, he even offered aid to North Korea if it ends its nuclear weapons program.

The range of Tillerson’s suggestions, which over a span of 24 hours also included restarting negotiations, reflected America’s failure to halt North Korea’s nuclear advances despite decades of U.S.-led sanctions, military threats and stop-and-go rounds of diplomatic engagement.

Chairing a ministerial meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday, Tillerson declared that “failing to act now on the most pressing security issue in the world may bring catastrophic consequences.”

Tillerson said all options “must remain on the table,” while emphasizing the need for diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea.

His ideas included a ban on North Korean coal imports and preventing its overseas guest labourers, a critical source of government revenue, from sending money home. And he warned of unilateral U.S. moves against international firms conducting banned businesses with Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs, which could ensnare banks in China, the North’s primary trade partner.

“We must have full and complete compliance by every country,” Tillerson said.