North Korea fires another missile, US seeks action

It reached further and higher than an intermediate-range missile the country successfully tested in February

Washington: The White House described a ballistic missile test by North Korea as provocative behaviour on Sunday, and called for stronger sanctions against Pyongyang. “Let this latest provocation serve as a call for all nations to implement far stronger sanctions against North Korea,” press secretary Sean Spicer said.

North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Sunday in defiance of calls to rein in its weapons programme, days after a new leader in its old rival South Korea came to power pledging to engage it in dialogue.

The US Pacific Command said it was assessing the type of missile but it was “not consistent with an intercontinental ballistic missile”.

Japanese defence minister Tomomi Inada said the missile could be of a new type. The missile flew 700 km and reached an altitude of more than 2,000 km, according to officials in South Korea and Japan, further and higher than an intermediate-range missile North Korea successfully tested in February from the same region of Kusong, northwest of capital Pyongyang.

North Korea is widely believed to be developing an intercontinental missile tipped with a nuclear weapon that is capable of reaching the United States.

Experts said the altitude the missile reached meant it was launched at a high trajectory, which would limit the lateral distance it traveled. But if it was fired at a standard trajectory, it would have a range of at least 4,000 km, experts said.

Kim Dong-yub of Kyungnam University’s Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul said he estimated a standard trajectory would give it a range of 6,000 km.

Japan said the missile flew for 30 minutes before dropping into the sea between North Korea’s east coast and Japan. The North has consistently test-fired missiles in that direction.

“The launch may indeed represent a new missile with a long range,” said Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, referring to the estimated altitude of more than 2,000 km. “It is definitely concerning.”

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who took office on Wednesday, held his first National Security Council in response to the launch, which he called a “clear violation” of UN Security Council resolutions, his office said. Mr Moon condemned the launch as a “reckless provocation”, staged days after his inauguration in an apparent test of the new administration.

Mr Moon won Tuesday’s election on a platform of a moderate approach to North Korea and has said he would be willing to go to Pyongyang under the right circumstances, arguing dialogue must be used in parallel with sanctions.

China called for restraint and for no one to exacerbate tension.