NK missiles progressing ‘faster than expected’
SEOUL: North Korea’s missile programme is progressing faster than expected, a South Korean minister said yesterday, hours after the UN Security Council demanded the North halt all nuclear and ballistic missile tests and condemned Sunday’s test-launch.
The reclusive North, which has defied all calls to rein in its weapons programmes, even from its lone major ally, China, has been working on a missile, mounted with a nuclear warhead, capable of striking the US mainland.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has called for an immediate halt to Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes and has warned that the “era of strategic patience” with North Korea under previous presidents was at an end.
South Korean defence minister Han Min-koo told parliament Sunday’s testlaunch was “successful in flight”.
“It is considered an IRBM [intermediate range ballistic missile] of enhanced calibre compared to Musudan missiles that have continually failed,” he said, referring to a class of missile designed to travel up to 3,000 to 4,000km.
Asked if North Korea’s missile programme was developing faster than the South had expected, he said: “Yes.”
The North’s KCNA news agency said on Monday the launch tested its capability to carry a “large-size heavy nuclear warhead”. Its ambassador to China said in Beijing on Monday it would continue such test launches “any time, any place”.
The missile flew 787km on a trajectory reaching an altitude of 2,111km, KCNA said.
Pyongyang has regularly threatened to destroy the US, which it accuses of pushing the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war by conducting recent military drills with South Korea and Japan.
In a unanimously agreed statement, the 15-member UN Security Council said it was of vital importance that North Korea show “sincere commitment to denuclearisation through concrete action and stressed the importance of working to reduce tensions”.
“To that end, the Security Council demanded the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea conduct no further nuclear and ballistic missile tests,” the council said, adding that it was ready to impose further sanctions on the country.
The statement also condemned an April 28 ballistic missile launch by Pyongyang.
Following that launch, Washington began talks with China on possible new UN sanctions. Traditionally, the US and China have negotiated new measures before involving remaining council members.
The UN Security Council first imposed sanctions on North Korea in 2006 and has strengthened the measures in response to its five nuclear tests and two long-range rocket launches. Pyongyang is threatening a sixth nuclear test.
Mr Trump warned this month that a “major, major conflict” with North Korea was possible. In a show of force, the US sent an aircraft carrier strike group, led by the USS Carl Vinson, to waters off the Korean peninsula to conduct drills with South Korea and Japan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in Beijing on Monday Moscow was opposed to any new countries acquiring nuclear weapons, but that the world should talk to North Korea rather than threaten it.
Apart from worries about North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons programmes, cyber security researchers have found technical evidence they said could link North Korea with the global WannaCry “ransomware” cyber attack that has infected more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries since Friday.
Symantec and Kaspersky Lab said on Monday some code in an earlier version of the WannaCry software had also appeared in programmes used by the Lazarus Group, which researchers from many companies have identified as a North Korea-run hacking operation.