S. Korea braces for another possible N. Korean missile test
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — South Korea is closely watching North Korea over the possibility it may launch another intercontinental ballistic missile as soon as Saturday when it celebrates its founding anniversary.
Seoul’s Unification Ministry spokesperson Eugene Lee said Friday that Pyongyang could potentially conduct its next ICBM tests this weekend or around Oct. 10, another North Korean holiday marking the founding of its ruling party.
North Korea has previously marked key dates with displays of military power, but now its tests appear to be driven by the need to improve missile capabilities.
The North is just coming off its sixth and the most powerful nuclear test to date on Sunday in what it claimed was a detonation of a thermonuclear weapon built for its ICBMs. The country tested its developmental Hwasong-14 ICBMs twice in July and analysts say the flight data from the launches indicate the missiles could cover a broad swath of the continental United States, including major cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago, when perfected.
North Korea fired the ICBMs at highly lofted angles in July to reduce ranges and avoid other countries. But South Korean officials say the next launches could be conducted at angles close to operational as the North would seek to test whether the warheads survive the harsh conditions of atmospheric re-entry and detonate properly.
In Washington, President Donald Trump reiterated Thursday that military action is “certainly” an option against North Korea, as his administration tentatively concurred with the pariah nation’s claim to have tested a hydrogen bomb. A senior administration official said the U.S. was still assessing last weekend’s underground explosion but so far noted nothing inconsistent with Pyongyang’s claim.
“Military action would certainly be an option,” Trump told a White House news conference. “I would prefer not going the route of the military, but it’s something certainly that could happen.”
Pressed on whether he could accept a scenario in which the isolated nation had nukes but was “contained and deterred,” Trump demurred. “I don’t put my negotiations on the table, unlike past administrations. I don’t talk about them. But I can tell you North Korea is behaving badly and it’s got to stop,” he said.
North Korea broke from its pattern of lofted launches last month when it fired a powerful new intermediate range missile, the Hwasong-12, over northern Japan. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un then called the launch a “meaningful prelude” to containing the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam and called for his military to conduct more ballistic missile launches targeting the Pacific Ocean.
Meanwhile, Sweden urged its citizens Friday to refrain from unnecessary trips to North Korea.
The announcement by the Swedish Foreign Affairs Ministry came hours after Mexico’s government said it declared North Korean Ambassador Kim Hyong Gil as persona non grata and ordered him to leave the country within 72 hours in response to Sunday’s nuke test.
The U.S. has already banned Americans from travelling to North Korea following the death of Otto Warmbier, a college student from Ohio who was released from North Korea in June in a coma after being detained there for more than a year.
Sweden has had diplomatic relations with North Korea since 1973. The Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang also provides consular services for the United States, Australia and Canada.
South Korean experts say that the launch was Pyongyang’s attempt to make missiles flying over Japan an accepted norm as it seeks to test new projectiles in conditions close to operational and win more military space in a region dominated by enemies.