More powerful ICBM in the works: N. Korea
Xi willing to work with Moon
SEOUL, Aug 24, (Agencies): With photographs obliquely showing a new rocket design, North Korea has sent a message that it is working on an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) more powerful than any it has previously tested, weapons experts said on Thursday.
If developed, such a missile could possibly reach any place on the US mainland, including Washington and New York, they said.
North Korea’s state media published photographs late on Wednesday of leader Kim Jong Un standing next to a diagram of a three-stage rocket it called the Hwasong-13.
Missile experts, who carefully examine such pictures for clues about North Korea’s weapons programmes, said there is no indication that the rocket has been fully developed. In any case, it had not been flight tested and it was impossible to calculate its potential range, they said.
However, a three-stage rocket would be more powerful than the two-stage Hwasong-14 ICBM tested on two occasions in July, they said. South Korean and US officials and experts have said the Hwasong-14 possibly had a range of about 10,000 km (6,200 miles) and could strike many parts of the United States, but not the East Coast.
“We should be looking at Hwasong-13 as a 12,000km class ICBM that can strike all of the mainland United States,” said Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul.
A distance in excess of 11,000 km (6,800 miles) will put Washington and New York within range from anywhere in North Korea.
Canada to hold hearings on M-threat:
A Canadian parliamentary committee will hold emergency hearings on the threat posed by North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs, an official said Wednesday.
A date for the hearing has not yet been set, but is expected by mid-September, Liberal committee member Mark Gerretsen’s office said.
It will hear from government officials and experts on Canada’s ability to defend itself against an attack by North Korea, and whether Canada should join the US ballistic missile defense system.
Opposition MPs on the Commons defense committee asked for the hearing amid recent tensions between the United States and North Korea.
Pyongyang tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) last month that appeared to bring much of the US within range.
That sparked a grim warning by President Donald Trump that Washington could rain “fire and fury” on the North. (AFP)
Xi willing to work with S. Korea:
Chinese President Xi Jinping said Thursday he’s willing to work with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in on addressing differences between the two countries following months of angry rhetoric and economic retaliation over Seoul’s deployment of a US missile-defense system.
Xi’s remarks came in a message on Thursday to Moon marking the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Beijing and Seoul, close economic and trade partners who have maintained generally friendly relations despite South Korea’s military alliance with the US.
The official Xinhua News Agency quoted Xi as saying he was willing to make “concerted efforts” to improve relations but did not directly mention the missiledefense system known as THAAD.