It’s Kim Jong-dumb
Tempts fate with yet another missile test
NORTH Korean dictator Kim Jong-un yesterday moved the world closer to a potentially devastating nuclear conflict after sending a second missile in a matter of weeks hurtling over Japan.
The rogue nation’s leader set alarm bells ringing with his latest rocket, which was fired from Sunan, Pyongyang, early yesterday morning, sparking calls for a “global response”.
The firing of the missile was a clear message of defiance to North Korea’s rivals and came at the end of a week in which the United Nations passed another round of tough sanctions on the country – including a cap on oil sales, a ban on natural gas and a block on certain exports.
Yesterday’s rocket flew directly over northern Japan, landing in the Pacific Ocean about 2000km east of Hokk- aido. The missile flew some 3700km – meaning the US territory of Guam, home to an important strategic military base, would be within range. It was the country’s longest-ever test flight of a ballistic missile.
Kim’s latest display of brinkmanship was met with outrage, with South Korean President Moon Jae-in ordering his military to conduct a live-fire ballistic missile drill in response.
The country’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said one of the two missiles fired in the drill hit a sea target about 250km away, approximately the distance to Pyongyang’s Sunan.
Japan also reacted with fury, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe calling the launch reckless.
“We as a nation simply cannot accept these repeated provocative acts by North Korea and we have lodged our firm protest and while communicating the strong anger from the Japanese public,” Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in an address to the nation.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull condemned the launch as “reckless and dangerous”, and called for even tougher punishments and economic sanctions while NATO called for a “global re- sponse” to “a major threat to international peace and security”.
Even North Korea’s traditional ally China slammed the launch but appealed for restraint to avoid inflaming tensions further.
Since US President Donald Trump threatened the North with “fire and fury” in August, the secretive state has conducted its most powerful nuclear test, threatened to send missiles into the waters around Guam and launched two missiles of increasing range over US ally Japan. It tested its firstever intercontinental ballistic missile in July.
The latest launch came after direct threats were issued against Japan, with the socalled North Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee stating in the aftermath of the UN sanctions: “Japan is no longer needed to exist near us. The four islands of the archipelago should be sunken into the sea by the nuclear bomb of Juche.”
Juche is North Korea’s philosophy of military “self-reliance”, which has led it to six successful atomic bomb tests.
The White House had yet to make an official comment last night on the latest launch, but the world is waiting to see how Mr Trump will react.