U.S. slams N. Korea for ICBM ‘escalation’
U.S. seeks sanctions, conducts missile tests with Seoul.
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — The United States responded Wednesday to North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile test by conducting a rare joint missile exercise with South Korea and pushing to impose tougher United Nations sanctions against the North that would affect trading partners like China.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, told an emergency meeting of the Security Council that North Korea’s test of an intercontinental ballistic missile Tuesday was a “clear escalation.”
On Tuesday, North Korea successfully tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-14. Washington and its allies confirmed that the weapon was an ICBM and condemned the test as a violation of U.N. resolutions and a dangerous escalation of tensions.
The top U.S. general in South Korea said Wednesday that “self-restraint” was all that was keeping the United States and South Korea from going to war with the North.
The unusually blunt warning, from Gen. Vincent Brooks, commander of U.S. troops based in Seoul, came as the South’s defense minister indicated the North’s missile — already considered a threat to Alaska — has the poten-
tial to reach Hawaii.
“Self-restraint, which is a choice, is all that separates armistice and war,” Brooks said, referring to the 1953 cease-fire that halted but never officially ended the Korean War. “As this alliance missile live-fire shows, we are able to change our choice when so ordered by our alliance national leaders.
“It would be a grave mistake for anyone to believe anything to the contrary.”
Although doubts remained about whether North Korea had cleared all the technical hurdles to make the Hwasong-14 a fully functional ICBM, the launch prompted the United States and South Korea to conduct the joint missile exercise off the east coast of South Korea on Wednesday. The drill involved firing an undisclosed number of ballistic missiles into the sea.
President Moon Jae-in of South Korea asked President Donald Trump on Tuesday night to endorse the joint exercise, arguing that the allies needed to respond to the North’s provocation with “more than statements,” Moon’s office said.
The South Korean military said the missiles, which had a range of about 185 miles, had been fired to test their ability to launch “a precision strike at the enemy leadership” in case of war. It did not say how far the missiles had traveled.
Japan’s chief Cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, said Wednesday that Japan and the United States had agreed to take “specific actions to improve our defense systems and our ability to deter North Korea.”
Suga did not say what those actions were, but a spokesman for the Defense Ministry said the government was considering buying ballistic missile defense systems from the United States.
Meanwhile, Trump criticized China on Wednesday for failing to do more to pressure North Korea on its nuclear program, suggesting that he was re-evaluating the U.S. trade relationship with Beijing.
The propaganda battle between the Koreas escalated Wednesday, even as Asian stock markets appeared to shrug off the latest tensions.
The North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, said the missile test was intended to “slap the American bastards in their face” and was a Fourth of July “gift package” for the “Yankees.”
South Korea released a computer-animated video showing missile strikes at the heart of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. The video featured a U.S. B1-B bomber and German-made Taurus air-to-land cruise missiles.
The Taurus, which is meant to destroy targets underground, is often cited as a critical weapon South Korea would use in an operation to “decapitate” the North’s government.
The North Korean missile launched Tuesday was fired at a steep angle, flying a horizontal distance of only 578 miles but reaching an altitude of more than 1,700 miles, according to North Korean, South Korean and Japanese officials.
South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo said the Hwasong-14, if launched on a standard trajectory, could have a range of 4,350 to 4,970 miles, enough to hit Alaska and possibly Hawaii.