North Korea tests world’s patience
geneva — The United States wants to exhaust every diplomatic option on North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes, and to see loopholes in the North Korean sanctions regime closed, US disarmament ambassador Robert Wood said on Friday.
“Sanctions have not had a real opportunity to bite as hard as we would like them to bite, and that comes from the fact that they have not been fully implemented,” Wood told a news conference in Geneva.
North Korea fired a second missile over Japan far out into the Pacific Ocean on Friday, South Korean and Japanese officials said, deepening tension after Pyongyang’s recent test of its sixth and most powerful nuclear bomb.
Washington has in the past accused China, North Korea’s main trading partner, of failing to apply enough economic pressure to its neighbour.
United States Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Tuesday that if China failed to implement the latest United Nations sanctions on North Korea, he would seek new financial sanctions against Beijing. Wood, formally US ambassador to the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament, said North Korea had exploited “gaping holes” in the sanctions regime to secretly acquire equipment for its ballistic missile and nuclear weapon programmes: “We want to close those loopholes.”
Asked if war or a United States military strike was possible, Wood said: “We are not taking any options off the table but ... we are pursuing the diplomatic track right now.
“That’s where we are. We want to exhaust all diplomatic options,” Wood added.
seoul/tokyo — North Korea fired a missile that flew over Japan’s northern Hokkaido far out into the Pacific Ocean on Friday, South Korean and Japanese officials said, deepening tension after Pyongyang’s recent test of its most powerful nuclear bomb.
The missile flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific about 2,000 km east of Hokkaido, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
The missile reached an altitude of about 770km and flew for about 19 minutes over a distance of about 3,700km, according to South Korea’s military — far enough to reach the US Pacific territory of Guam.
On Aug 29, North Korea launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile, the Hwasong-12, which travelled 2,700km (1,700 miles), also over Japan.
“The range of this test was significant since North Korea demonstrated that it could reach Guam with this missile,” the Union of Concerned Scientists said.
However, it said the accuracy of the missile, still at an early stage of development, was low, so it would be difficult to destroy the US Andersen Air Force Base on Guam.
Warning announcements about the missile blared around 7am on Thursday in parts of northern Japan, while many residents received alerts on their mobile phones or saw warnings on TV telling them to seek refuge.
U.S. Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis said the launch “put millions of Japanese into duck and cover”, although residents of northern Japan appeared calm and went about their business as normal after the second such launch in less than a month.
The US military said soon after the launch it had detected a single intermediate range ballistic missile but the missile did not pose a threat to North America or the US Pacific territory of Guam, which lies 3,400 km from North Korea. Pyongyang had previously threatened to launch missiles towards Guam.
US officials repeated Washington’s “ironclad” commitments to the defence of its allies. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for “new measures” against North Korea and said the “continued provocations only deepen North Korea’s diplomatic and economic isolation”.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in echoed that view and said dialogue with the North was impossible at this point. He ordered officials to analyse and prepare for new North
Chinese side opposes the dprK’s violation of the resolution of the uN and its use of ballistic missile technology for launch activities.” Hua Chunying , China foreign ministry spokeswoman
Korea threats, including electromagnetic pulse and biochemical attacks, a spokesman said. The United Nations Security Council was to meet at 3pm on Friday at the request of the United States and Japan, diplomats said, just days after its 15 members unanimously stepped up sanctions against North Korea over its September 3 nuclear test.
russia is deeply concerned by the latest provocative launches which lead to a further escalation of tensions on the peninsula.” Dmitry Pesko, Kremlin spokesman
Those sanctions imposed a ban on North Korea’s textile exports and capped its imports of crude oil.
“The international community needs to come together and send a clear message to North that it is threatening world peace with its actions,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters, describing the launch as “unacceptable”.
North’s tests show that it can “turn the american empire into a sea in flames through sudden surprise attack from any region and area.” Rodong Sinmun, Pyongyang’s newspaper
North Korea has launched dozens of missiles under young leader Kim Jong-un as it accelerates a weapons programme designed to give it the ability to target the United States with a powerful, nuclear-tipped missile. Two tests in July were for long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching at least parts of the US mainland.—