N Korea’s first ICBM test raises ire
Trump urges China to ‘end this nonsense’
NORTH Korea said yesterday it had successfully tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile – a watershed moment in its push to develop a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the mainland United States.
US experts said the device could reach Alaska, and the launch, which came as Americans prepared to mark Independence Day, triggered a Twitter outburst from President Donald Trump who urged China to “end this nonsense once and for all”.
The North’s possession of a working ICBM – something that Trump has vowed “won’t happen” – would force a fundamental recalculation of the strategic threat posed by the isolated, impoverished state.
The “landmark” test of a Hwasong-14 missile was overseen by leader Kim JongUn, an emotional female announcer said on state Korean Central Television.
The rocket was “a very powerful ICBM that can strike any place in the world”, the announcer said, and “a major breakthrough in the history of our republic”.
In a statement the North’s Academy of Defence Science, which developed the missile, said it reached an altitude of 2 802km and flew 933km, calling it the “final gate to rounding off the state nuclear force”.
There are still doubts whether the North can miniaturise a nuclear weapon sufficiently to fit it onto a missile nose cone, or if it has mastered the technology needed for it to survive the difficult reentry into the earth’s atmosphere.
But the country has made great progress in its missile capabilities since the ascension to power of Kim, who has overseen three nuclear tests and multiple rocket launches.
The United Nations has imposed multiple sets of sanctions on Pyongyang, which retorts that it needs nuclear arms to defend itself against the threat of invasion.
US Pacific Command confirmed the test and said it was a land-based, intermediate range missile that flew for 37 minutes before splashing down in the Sea of Japan, adding the launch did not pose a threat to North America.
It came down in Japan’s exclusive economic zone and was estimated to have reached an altitude that “greatly exceeded” 2 500km, Tokyo said, prompting arms control specialist Jeffrey Lewis to respond on Twitter: “That’s it. It’s an ICBM. An ICBM that can hit Anchorage not San Francisco, but still.”
David Wright, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, wrote on the organisation’s allthingsnuclear blog that the available figures implied the missile had “a maximum range of roughly 6 700km on a standard trajectory”.
“That range would not be enough to reach the lower 48 states or the large islands of Hawaii, but would allow it to reach all of Alaska.”
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters: “This launch clearly shows that the threat has grown.”
The US, Japan and South Korea will hold a summit on the issue on the sidelines of this week’s G20 meeting, he added. “Also I will encourage President Xi Jinping and President Putin to take more constructive measures.”
South Korea’s President Moon Jae-In strongly condemned what he called an “irresponsible provocation”.
Beijing called for “restraint”, and hit back at Trump’s Tweet, saying it had made “relentless efforts” on North Korea. — AFP