N. Korea fires missile over Japan, Trump says ready

North’s missile flies over Japan; message received, says US

Washington/Seoul, Aug. 29: President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that all options are on the table for the United States to respond to North Korea’s firing of a ballistic missile over northern Japan’s Hokkaido island into the sea in a new show of force.

The missile test further increased tension in east Asia as US and South Korean forces conducted annual military exercises on the Korean peninsula, angering Pyongyang which sees the war games as a preparation for invasion. North Korea has conducted dozens of ballistic missile tests under its leader, Kim Jong Un, in defiance of UN sanctions, but firing projectiles over mainland Japan is rare.

Mr Trump said the world had received North Korea’s latest message “loud and clear”.

North Korea firing projectiles over mainland Japan is rare.

Washington, Aug. 29: US President Donald Trump warned “all options” are again on the table on Tuesday after North Korea snubbed Washington’s bid to lure it back to talks with a provocative new missile test that flew over Japan.

Mr Trump revived his implied threat of preemptive US military action just days after congratulating himself that North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un appeared to be “starting to respect” him by holding off on missile firings.

Kim responded not only by resuming test launches, but by picking a much more dangerous flight path, sending a ballistic missile high over US ally Japan, triggering consternation on the ground and in world capitals.

“Threatening and destabilising actions only increase the North Korean regime’s isolation in the region and among all nations of the world,” Mr Trump said, in a White House statement. “All options are on the table.”

In the statement, the US President said, “the world has received North Korea’s latest message loud and clear: this regime has signalled its contempt for its neighbours, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behaviour.”

Japan and the US called an emergency meeting of the US Security Council in New York, where Washington’s ambassador Nikki Haley warned that “enough is enough” and that tough action must be taken against Pyongyang.

“It’s unacceptable,” Ms Haley said. “They have violated every single UN Security Council resolution that we’ve had, and so I think something serious has to happen.”

New sanctions on North Korea could be discussed, she said.

For its part, North Korea defended its right to take “tough countermeasures” in response to what it considers US aggression — despite repeated calls from Washington for it to come to the negotiating table.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the North Korean missile launch a “unprecedented serious and grave threat to Japan” that “significantly undermines the peace and security of the region.”

The missile was in flight for about 15 minutes, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at an emergency press conference.

Meanwhile, millions of Japanese awoke to ominous text messages warning them to take cover as the missile flew overhead, with one train operator bluntly explaining its halted service as “Reason: Ballistic missile launch.”

“Missile passing. Missile passing.” warned an official text message sent to people across the north of Japan. Sirens blared in the northern communities of Hokkaido that were on the flight path of the ballistic missile. — Agencies