Trump says all options on table after N Korea’s missile launch

Test comes weeks after UN Security Council voted to impose sanctions on Pyongyang

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that “all options are on the table” in terms of an American response to North Korea’s launch of a missile over Japan.

In a terse, written statement, Trump said that with the missile launch, North Korea has “signalled its contempt for its neighbours, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behaviour.”

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

In a first, North Korea on Tuesday fired a midrange ballistic missile designed to carry a nuclear payload that flew over US ally Japan and splashed into the northern Pacific Ocean, officials said. The aggressive launch over the territory of a close US ally sent a clear message of defiance as Washington and South Korea conduct war games nearby.

Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan conferred by telephone over the latest missile test and how to response.

The White House said the leaders agreed that North Korea poses “a grave and growing direct threat” to the United States, Japan, South Korea and countries around the world.

Abe said both nations were in “total agreement” that an emergency meeting was needed at the U.N. Security Council to step up pressure on North Korea after what he called an unprecedented threat.

North Korea’s test came weeks after the UN Security Council voted unanimously to impose tough new sanctions against Pyongyang.