US, S Korea send missile warning
Tensions over North ramp up as simulated precision strike conducted in reaction to landmark rocket launch
SOUTH Korea and the United States fired missiles yesterday, simulating a precision strike against North Korea’s leadership in response to a landmark intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test described by Kim Jong-un as a gift to “American bastards”.
Tuesday’s launch, acknowledged as an ICBM by Washington, marked a milestone in Pyongyang’s decadeslong drive for the capability to threaten the US mainland with a nuclear strike, posing a stark foreign policy challenge for Donald Trump.
The US president had vowed that it would not happen, but independent experts said it could reach Alaska or even further towards the continental US.
It will require a reassessment of the threat posed by the nuclear-armed North Korea, which has carried out five atomic tests and said the multi-stage rocket’s warhead could survive atmospheric re-entry to strike a target.
Amid international condemnation of the test, South Korean and US military forces launched short-range ballistic missiles of their own less than 24 hours afterwards from the peninsula into the Sea of Japan.
The South’s new president, Moon Jae-in, who backs engagement with Pyongyang to bring it to the negotiating table, said the North’s serious provocation required them to react with more than just a statement.
US General Vincent Brooks, the combined forces commander in South Korea, said: “Self-restraint, which is a choice, is all that separates armistice and war.
“As this alliance missile live fire shows, we are able to change our choice when so ordered by our alliance national leaders.”
The two countries are in a security alliance, with 28 500 US troops stationed in the South to protect it from any threats.
The launches came hours after a joint appeal by the presidents of China and Russia for all sides to exercise restraint and ease tensions.
Disagreement on how best to respond will complicate discussions at the UN, where the Security Council was due to meet in emergency session yesterday.
After personally overseeing the test, the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said American bastards would not be very happy with this gift sent on the July 4 anniversary, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.
The Rodong Sinmun newspaper, mouthpiece of the North’s ruling party, devoted five of its six pages to the news, including 55 colour pictures.
Questions remain over the precise capabilities of the weapon, but footage on the North’s state television yesterday showed the first stage separating from the device and falling away.
KCNA said it had a carbon composite nose cone that could carry a large, heavy nuclear warhead and survive the harsh conditions of re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere, including heat reaching thousands of degrees centigrade, to accurately hit the target.
The missile only travelled little more than 900km to come down in the Sea of Japan, but the altitude it reached – more than 2 800km according to Pyongyang – demonstrated it can travel far further.
South Korea Defence Minister Han Min-koo put its range at 7 000 to 8 000km, far enough to put US Pacific Command in Hawaii within reach.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson strongly condemned the launch, saying: “Testing an ICBM represents a new escalation of the threat to the United States, our allies and partners, the region, and the world.
“As we, along with others, have made clear, we will never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea.”
But experts said that particular red line had already been crossed.
“The window for negotiating denuclearisation is closed,” Jeffrey Lewis, an expert in nuclear non-proliferation, said.
“The big point is that we have to accept North Korea with a nuclear-armed ICBM.”