Another missile from N Korea

Nuclear-armed North Korea has fired a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan, just ahead of a highly-anticipated China-US summit at which Pyongyang’s accelerating atomic weapons programme is set to top the agenda.

South Korea’s defence ministry said the missile – launched days after Pyongyang warned of retaliation if the global community ramps up sanctions – had flown 60km and represented a “threat to peace and stability of the whole world”.

The US military said it was a KN-15 medium-range ballistic missile which they had determined posed no threat to America. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the launch was a “grave provocation”. The launch will fuel international concerns about the hermit state’s weapons programme.

Pyongyang is on a quest to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead, and has so far staged five nuclear tests, two of them last year.

The latest launch came after President Donald Trump threatened the US was prepared to go it alone in bringing the North to heel if China did not step in. His comments, in an interview with the Financial Times, were interpreted as an effort to up the pressure on Beijing ahead of a summit today and tomorrow.

Trump will host China’s President Xi Jinping for their first face-to-face meeting this week where the growing tensions on the Korean peninsula will be high on the agenda.

The Trump administration insists Beijing holds the key to stopping its errant neighbour and is not doing enough to control it. –