N. Korea launch increases focus on risky US ‘shootdown’ option

WASHINGTON, Aug 30, (Agencies): North Korea’s firing of a ballistic missile over Japan could increase pressure on Washington to consider shooting down future test launches, although there is no guarantee of success and US officials are wary of a dangerous escalation with Pyongyang.

More attention is likely to focus on the prospects for intercepting a missile in flight after North Korea on Tuesday conducted one of its boldest missile tests in years, one government official said.

Such a decision would not be taken lightly given tensions over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

And while President Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed that “all options are on the table”, there has been no sign of any quick policy shift in Washington toward direct US military action.

But Pyongyang’s launch of an intermediate-range Hwasong-12 missile over Japan’s northern Hokkaido island underscored how Trump’s tough rhetoric, pursuit of sanctions and occasional shows of military force around the Korean peninsula have done little to deter North Korea’s leader.

“Kim Jong Un has chosen to thumb his nose at the Americans and Japanese by conducting this test,” said David Shear, former US assistant secretary of defense for East Asia.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has already pledged that the military would shoot down any missile it deemed a danger to US or allied territory.

What is unclear is whether Washington would be prepared to use its multi-layered missile defense systems to intercept a missile like the one that overflew Japan but never directly threatened its territory.

Doing so would essentially be a US show of force rather than an act of self-defense.

“I would think that in government deliberations that would likely be one of the options out on the table,” Shear said.

Some analysts say there is a danger that North Korea would see it as an act of war and retaliate militarily with potentially devastating consequences for South Korea and Japan.

China, North Korea’s neighbor and main trading partner, would also likely oppose such a direct US military response.

Experts say there is no guarantee that US missile defense systems, including Aegis ballistic missile defense ships in the region and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems based in Guam and South Korea, would hit their target, despite recent successful tests.

Also: WASHINGTON: The US military shot down a medium-range ballistic missile target off the coast of Hawaii early Wednesday, in a successful test of a missile interception system Japan is seeking to bolster its defense against North Korea.

The test was performed by the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the US Navy from the USS

John Paul Jones, a guided-missile destroyer, just one day after North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan.

Using Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) guided missiles, the test intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii by using the USS John Paul Jones’s onboard AN/SPY-1 radar.

North Korean leader Kim JongUn has promised more missile flights over Japan, insisting his nuclear-armed nation’s provocation was a mere “curtain-raiser,” in the face of United Nations condemnation and US warnings of severe repercussions.