US test-zaps missile as Trump warns Kim

An American warship successfully shot down a medium-range ballistic missile in a test off Hawaii on Wednesday, as President Trump said that “talking is not the answer” in dealing with North Korea.

The USS John Paul Jones detected and tracked a rocket launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai before intercepting it with SM-6 missiles, the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said.

A previous such test from the same guided-missile destroyer failed in June.

“We are working closely with the fleet to develop this important new capability, MDA Director Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves said.

“This was a key milestone in giving our Aegis BMD ships an enhanced capability to defeat ballistic missles in their terminal phase.”

The ship detected and tracked the target missile “with its onboard AN/SPY-1 radar.”

The test followed North Korea’s firing of a ballistic missile on Tuesday from its capital, Pyongyang, that flew over Japanese territory before plunging into the northern Pacific Ocean.

The provocative test-flight sent a clear message of defiance from Korth Korean despot Kim Jong-un as Washington and Seoul conduct war games in the region.

Pyonyang said the launch was “the first step of the military operation of the North Korean military in the Pacific and a meaningful prelude to containing Guam,” according to state media.

Guam Gov. Eddie Calvo said there is no change in the US island territory’s threat level, since the heated rhetoric was to be expected amid military exercises by the United States and its allies.

Trump tweeted Wednesday that the time for talking with North Korea is over:

“The U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years. Talking is not the answer!”

The president didn’t explain his “extortion” remark, but previous administrations have tried to get the rogue regime to curb its nuclear program by offering food and aid packages — a strategy that has consistently failed.

Adopting a more moderate tone, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis insisted diplomacy was still an option.

“We’re never out of diplomatic solutions,” Mattis said as he went into a meeting with South Korea Defense Minister Song Young-Moo.

“We continue to work together, and the minister and I share responsibility to provide for the protection of our nation[s], our populations and our interests, which is what we are here to discuss. We are never complacent,” Mattis added.

The United Nations has condemned North Korea’s “outrageous” firing of the missile over Japan, demanding that the isolated country cease its weapons program, but held back on any threat of new sanctions.