N. Korea fires missile over Japan, Trump says ‘all options’ open

North Korea fires ballistic missile over Japan’s northern Hokkaido island into the sea

US President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that “all options” are on the table after North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan — implying Washington has not ruled out a military strike.

The test launch by the isolated but defiant nuclear-armed nation was seen as a major escalation and triggered an angry response from Tokyo.

For its part, North Korea defended its right to take “tough counter-measures” in response to what it calls US aggression — despite calls from Washington to come to the negotiating table.

“Threatening and destabilising actions only increase the North Korean regime’s isolation in the region and among all nations of the world,” Mr Trump said, in a statement released by the White House. “All options are on the table.”

Mr Trump said the world “has received North Korea’s latest message

Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, visibly unsettled by the launch, said it was an ‘unprecedented, serious and grave threat’ to his nation

loud and clear: this regime has signaled its contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior.”

This reiterates past warnings that Washington may resort to military action to resolve the crisis, including Mr Trump’s apocalyptic threat of “fire and fury” after Pyongyang carried out long-range ballistic missile tests last month. Pyongyang in turn threatened to fire missiles into waters around Guam, to demonstrate its supposed ability to “engulf” the hub of US air power in Asia.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, visibly unsettled by the launch, said it was an “unprecedented, serious and grave threat”. The UN Security Council has called an emergency meeting at Tokyo’s and Washington’s request.

But North Korean envoy Han Tae-Song, addressing the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, said his country had the right to react to ongoing US-South Korean military exercises.

Washington, Aug. 29: The missile fired by North Korea on Tuesday was believed to be a relatively untested Hwasong-12 with three of the only four previous launches ending in catastrophic failure.

Analysts have yet to decide whether the weapon that flew over northern Japan shortly after dawn was also a failure as the missile reportedly broke into three parts before crashing into the Pacific Ocean.

An intermediate-range ballistic missile, the first Hwasong-12, was launched on April 4 his year. The weapon reportedly reached a maximum altitude of 185 km and travelled a mere 61 km before pinwheeling.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said that “all options are on the table” in terms of a US response to the North Korea launch of the missile over Japan.

In a terse, written statement on Tuesday, Mr Trump said that with the missile launch North Korea has “signaled its contempt for its neighbours, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behaviour.”

“Threatening and destabilising actions only increase the North Korean regime’s isolation in the region and among all nations of the world,” Mr Trump said. “All options are on the table.”

In a first, the midrange ballistic missile was designed to carry a nuclear payload that flew over Japan and splashed into the northern Pacific Ocean, officials said.

The aggressive launch over the territory of a close US ally sent a clear message of defiance as Washington and South Korea conduct war games nearby.

Mr Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan conferred by telephone over the latest missile test and how to response. The White House said on Tuesday that the leaders agreed that North Korea poses “a grave and growing direct threat” to the United States, Japan, South Korea and countries around the world. “President Trump and Prime Minister Abe committed to increasing pressure on North Korea, and doing their utmost to convince the international community to do the same,” the White House said.

Mr Abe said in a statement that “Japan’s and the US positions are totally at one.” Mr Abe added that both nations were in “total agreement” that an emergency meeting was needed at the UN Security Council to step up pressure on North Korea after what he called an unprecedented threat. He also said Trump expressed his “strong commitment” to defending Japan. North Korea’s latest test came after the UN Security Council voted to impose tough new sanctions against the government.