Defiance meets diplomacy
America’s bid to deal with North Korea at the UN is followed by another failed test of a ballistic missile.
‘ A failure is a failure, but that doesn’t mean the launch was meaningless.’ MOON SEONG MOOK - A SOUTH KOREAN ANALYST AND FORMER MILITARY OFFICIAL
SEOUL A North Korean midrange ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch yesterday, South Korea and the United States said – the third test-fire flop this month alone, but a clear message of defiance as a US supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters.
North Korean ballistic missile tests are banned by the United Nations because they are seen as part of the North’s push for a nuclear-tipped missile that can hit the US mainland. The latest test came as US officials pivoted from a hard line to diplomacy at the UN, in an effort to address what may be Washington’s most pressing foreign policy challenge.
US President Donald Trump said on Twitter, ‘‘North Korea disrespected the wishes of China & its highly respected President REUTERS when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad!’’ He did not answer reporters’ questions about the missile launch upon returning to the White House from a day trip to Atlanta.
North Korea did not immediately comment on the launch, though its state media reiterated the country’s goal of being able to strike the continental US.
The timing of the test was striking. Only hours earlier, the UN Security Council held a ministerial meeting on Pyongyang’s escalating weapons programme. North Korean officials boycotted the meeting, which was chaired by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile flew for several minutes and reached a maximum height of 71 kilometres before it apparently failed.
It did not immediately provide an estimate of how far the missile flew, but a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was likely a medium-range KN-17 ballistic missile. It broke up a few minutes after the launch.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, speaking after a meeting of Japan’s National Security Council, said the missile was believed to have fallen on an inland part of North Korea.
Analysts say the KN-17 is a new Scud-type missile developed by North Korea. The North fired the same type of missile on April 16, just a day after a massive military parade where it showed off its expanding missile arsenal, but US officials called that launch a failure.
Some analysts say a missile the North test-fired on April 5, which US officials identified as a Scud variant, also might have been a KN-17. US officials said that missile spun out of control and crashed into the sea.
Moon Seong-mook, a South Korean analyst and former military official, said the North would gain valuable knowledge even from failed launches as it continued to improve its missile technology. The South Korean and Japanese assessments of yester- day’s launch indicated that the North fired the missile from a higher-than-normal angle to prevent it from flying too far, he said.
‘‘They could be testing a variety of things, such as the thrust of the rocket engine or the separation of stages. A failure is a failure, but that doesn’t mean the launch was meaningless.’’
The two earlier launches were conducted from an eastern coastal area, but yesterday’s missile was fired in the west, from an area near Pukchang, just north of the capital, Pyongyang.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry denounced yesterday’s launch as an ‘‘obvious’’ violation of UN resolutions and the latest display of North Korea’s ‘‘belligerence and recklessness’’.
‘‘We sternly warn that the North Korean government will continue to face a variety of strong punitive measures issued by the UN Security Council and others if it continues to reject denuclearisation and play with fire in front of the world,’’ the ministry said. AP