North Korea ramps up tensions with US after fresh missile test
NORTH Korea abruptly ended a 10-week pause in its weapons testing yesterday by launching what the Pentagon believes was an intercontinental ballistic missile — a move that will escalate already high tensions with Washington.
President Donald Trump, who was briefed while the missile was still in the air, later reacted to the launch by saying: “We will take care of it.”
The President, meeting Republican politicians in Washington, said: “It is a situation that we will handle.”
Pentagon spokesman Colonel Rob Manning said that the missile was launched from Sain Ni in North Korea and travelled about 620 miles before landing in the Sea of Japan.
Japan said it may have landed within 200 nautical miles of its coast.
The launch is dictator Kim Jong-un’s first since he fired an intermediate range missile over Japan on September 15, and it appeared to shatter chances that the hiatus could lead to renewed diplomacy over the reclusive country’s nuclear programme.
US officials have sporadically floated the idea of direct talks with North Korea if it maintained restraint.
An intercontinental ballistic missile test will be considered particularly provocative as it would signal further progress by Pyongyang in developing a weapon of mass destruction that could strike the US mainland, which Mr Trump has vowed to prevent.
Seoul’s joint chiefs of staff said the US and South Korean mili- taries were analysing the launch data from the missile, which it said was fired from an area in a city close to North Korea’s capital.
In response, it said South Korea conducted a “precision-strike” drill, without elaborating.
A week ago the Trump administration declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, further straining ties between governments that are still technically at war. Washington also imposed new sanctions on North Korean shipping firms and Chinese trading companies dealing with the North.
North Korea called the terror designation a “serious provocation” that justifies its development of nuclear weapons. Echoing the initial US assessment of the latest test, Japan’s defence minister Itsunori Onodera said the missile was likely an intercontinental ballistic missile.
“We can assume it was ICBMclass,” Mr Onodera said.
South Korea said the missile travelled a distance of 600 miles. It estimated it could travel 2,796 miles. Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said the missile landed in the Sea of Japan.
He called the provocation unacceptable and said Tokyo has filed a strong protest.
In Washington, the White House tweeted that Mr Trump was briefed on the situation “while missile was still in the air”.