North Korea targets Japan

KIM’S THIRD BALLISTIC TEST LANDS IN EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE Pyongyang forges ahead to ‘secure more leverage in future negotiations with US’.

North Korea test-fired a missile into Japan’s maritime economic zone yesterday – the latest in a series of provocative launches that have heightened tensions over its nuclear weapons ambitions.

It was the North’s third ballistic missile test in as many weeks and the 12th this year, carried out in defiance of UN sanctions warnings and US threats of possible military action.

US military monitors said the short-range missile flew for six minutes, while Japan said it fell into its exclusive economic zone, extending 200 nautical miles from the coast.

The launch went ahead despite tough talk from US President Donald Trump, who promised last week at the G7 summit that the “big problem” of North Korea “will be solved”.

Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, swiftly condemned the test and vowed concerted action with its US ally.

“We will never tolerate North Korea’s continued provocations that ignore repeated warnings by the international community,” Abe said.

“As agreed during the G7 summit, the North Korean problem is the international community’s top priority. To deter North Korea, we will take concrete action, with the United States.”

The North has been stepping up efforts towards its ultimate goal: developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that can deliver a nuclear warhead to the US.

Yesterday’s test also marked the second time this year that a North Korean missile fell provocatively close to its neighbour, Japan. South Korea’s military said the Scud-type missile travelled for 450km.

Despite Trump’s strident warnings, Secretary of Defence James Mattis said in an interview which aired on Sunday, before the launch, that a war with North Korea would be “catastrophic”.

“The North Korean regime has hundreds of artillery cannons and rocket launchers within range of one of the most densely populated cities on Earth, which is the capital of South Korea,” he told CBS News.

“This regime is a threat to the region, to Japan, to South Korea. And in the event of war, they would bring danger to China and to Russia as well. But the bottom line is, it would be catastrophic if this turns into a combat, if we’re not able to resolve this situation through diplomatic means.”

Mattis declined to say what kind of action from Pyongyang would constitute a “red line” for Washington, saying the administration needs “political manoeuvre room”.

The latest launch demonstrates the North’s determination to secure more leverage in any future negotiations with the US, said Cho Han-bum, analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification. – AFP