Merkel sets the tone for a frosty G20 summit
Jubilant North Korean leader wallows in the global uproar provoked by his rocket launch
The North Korean missile crisis, the war on terror, the related issue of Qatar and growing division between Europe and the US will feature prominently as world leaders gather in Hamburg for a stormy summit starting tomorrow.
The prospects of a tense meeting of the G20, which brings together 19 industrialised and emerging nations plus the 28-member EU, rose yesterday when the German chancellor Angela Merkel reasserted that Europe could no longer fully rely on the US under Donald Trump.
Mr Trump will be among heads of government attending tomorrow’s opening session of the two-day event.
He has clashed with Mrs Merkel and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, over immigration and climate policy.
A huge security operation has been mounted by authorities to protect the summit from anti-capitalist protesters.
Officials have said as many as 8,000 demonstrators, including many intent on violence, are likely to converge on the city for the two-day summit.
Protest organisers, who include extreme left-wing groups as well as those wanting peaceful opposition, say the numbers will be much greater.
The presence of Mr Trump, a hate figure to the European left, centre and environmental campaigners, has heightened fears of rioting in Germany’s second city, which is also Mrs Merkel’s birthplace.
Mrs Merkel added to pre-summit controversy as she welcomed Chinese president Xi Jinping to Berlin yesterday, saying their meeting was “a good opportunity to expand and broaden our extensive strategic relations”.
She said China and Germany could “make a contribution” to calming turmoil in the world.
Amid European dismay over the new White House’s “America First” approach to trade, immigration and the environment, Mrs Merkel said in May that “the times in which we can fully count on others are somewhat over”. In the weekly newspaper Die
Zeit, she said she still felt the same.
“It is, for example, open as to whether we can and should in
Grinning broadly, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un delighted in the global furore created by his nation’s first launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. Mr Kim yesterday vowed to never abandon nuclear weapons and to keep sending Washington more “gift packages” of missile and atomic tests.
US and South Korean forces, in response to Tuesday’s launch, put on a show of force for Pyongyang, with soldiers firing “deep strike” missiles into South Korean territorial waters.
South Korean president Moon Jae-in ordered the drills arranged with the US to show “North Korea our firm, combined missile response posture”, his office said.
A North Korean test of an ICBM, confirmed by the US and South Korea, is a momentous step towards an arsenal of long-range nuclear-armed missiles.
The North is not there yet. Some analysts suggest it will take several more years to perfect such an arsenal, but a successful launch of an ICBM has long been seen as a red line, after which it would only be a matter of time if the country is not stopped.
Worry spread in Washington and at the UN, where the US, Japan and South Korea requested a Security Council emergency session to be held late yesterday.
US secretary of state Rex Tillerson said the US response would include “stronger measures to hold North Korea accountable”.
The uproar seemed to embolden the North. Yesterday, state media described Mr Kim as “feasting his eyes” on the ICBM – which was said to be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead – before its launch.
“With a broad smile on his face,” Mr Kim urged his scientists to “frequently send big and small ‘gift packages’ to the Yankees” an apparent reference to continuing the nuclear and missile tests Mr Kim has ordered since taking power in late 2011.
The North was also pleased that its test took place as Americans celebrated their independence day. North Korea has a history of conducting weapons test on or close to July 4.
Mr Kim reportedly stressed that “the protracted showdown with the US imperialists has reached its final phase and it is the time for the DPRK to demonstrate its mettle to the US, which is testing its will in defiance of its warning”.
The launch is a rebuke to US president Donald Trump’s declaration that such a test “won’t happen”.
A US scientist analysing the height and distance travelled by the missile said it could reach Alaska.
North Korea’s Academy of Defence Science claimed the test of what it called the Hwasong-14 marked the “final step” in creating a “confident and powerful nuclear state that can strike anywhere on Earth”.
South Korea’s defence ministry said that the North test-fired a “missile with an ICBM-class range” of more than 5,500 kilometres.
But it said it was not certain if the test was successful because Seoul could not verify that the North has the re-entry technology for an ICBM.
The ministry said North Korea might now conduct a nuclear test with “boosted explosive power” to show off a warhead to be mounted on a missile.
The launch sends a warning to Washington and its chief Asian allies, South Korea and Japan, while also allowing North Korean scientists a chance to perfect their nuclear missile programme.
It came days after the first face-to-face meeting between Mr Trump and South Korean president Moon Jae- in and ahead of a summit of the world’s richest economies.