US SHOW OF FORCE
NORTH KOREA MISSILE CRISIS ESCALATES
THE US has answered North Korea’s latest missile launch by sending attack bombers to the area and testing a defence system that shoots down rockets.
The show of force – supported by Japanese and South Korean fighter jets – came after North Korea’s “Supreme Leader” Kim Jong-un fired a missile which landed 88 miles from Japan but is capable of hitting Chicago.
US Pacific air forces chief General Terrence O’Shaughnessy said: “We are ready to respond with rapid, lethal and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing.”
Two B-1B Lancer supersonic bombers flew north to the Korean peninsula from the Andersen air force base in Guam, escorted at various times during their 10-hour mission.
And the US missile defence agency confirmed there had been a test of their terminal high-altitude area defence system, which involved intercepting a ballistic missile launched from one of their own planes.
But US president Donald Trump said he was “disappointed China had not done enough” to stop Kim’s weapons programme, aimed at hitting America.
North Korea’s banned Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile – named after the Korean word for Mars – reached an altitude of 2300 miles and flew 620 miles on Friday before landing off Japan.
The launch was aimed to show the missile’s maximum range with a “large-sized heavy nuclear warhead,” Pyongyang’s news agency said.
The state mouthpiece quoted Kim as saying “the whole US mainland is within North Korea’s reach”, adding that Washington should regard the launch as a “grave warning”.
US experts confirmed that the missile was capable of reaching Denver or even Chicago.
Blaming Beijing for the escalating crisis, Trump tweeted: “I’m very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk.
“We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!”
North Korea threatened to “annihilate” America with a missile strike after CIA director Mike Pompeo said Kim Jong-un needed to be separated from his weapons. The tyrant personally supervised the latest launch on Friday night. State TV broadcast pictures of the missile lifting off in darkness and Kim
cheering with military aides.