TRUMP: NORTH DISRESPECTED CHINA
Ballistic rockets would fly into US if it shows any sign of provocation, warns North Korea
NORTH Korea test-fired a ballistic missile yesterday, shortly after United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned that failure to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes could lead to “catastrophic consequences”.
US and South Korean officials said the test, from an area north of Pyongyang, appeared to have failed, in what would be the North’s fourth straight unsuccessful missile test since March. The test came as the USS Carl
Vinson aircraft carrier group arrived in waters near the Korean peninsula, where it began exercises with the South Korean navy yesterday, about 12 hours after the failed launch, a South Korean navy official said.
Tillerson, in a United Nations Security Council meeting on North Korea on Friday, repeated the Trump administration’s position that all options were on the table if Pyongyang persisted with its nuclear and missile development.
“The threat of a nuclear attack on Seoul, or Tokyo, is real, and it’s only a matter of time before North Korea develops the capability to strike the US mainland,” Tillerson said.
“Failing to act now on the most pressing security issue in the world may bring catastrophic consequences.”
US President Donald Trump, who said in an interview on Thursday that North Korea was his biggest global challenge, said the launch was an affront to China, the North’s sole main ally.
“North Korea disrespected the wishes of China & its highly respected President when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad!” Trump tweeted after the launch.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the UN meeting it was not only up to China to solve the North Korean problem.
“The key to solving the nuclear issue on the peninsula does not lie in the hands of the Chinese side,” Wang said.
In a commentary yesterday, China’s official Xinhua news agency said North Korea and the US needed to tread cautiously.
“If both sides fail to make such necessary concessions, then not only will the two countries but the whole region and the whole world end up paying a heavy price for a possible confrontation.”
Trump, in his interview, had said he had praised Chinese leader Xi Jinping for “trying very hard” on North Korea but warned a “major, major conflict” between the US and North was possible.
The despatch of USS Carl Vinson to the waters off the Korean peninsula was a “reckless action of the war maniacs aimed at an extremely dangerous nuclear war”, the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, said in a commentary yesterday.
Intercontinental ballistic rockets would fly into the US “if the US shows any slight sign of provocation”, it said.
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the North had probably tested a medium-range missile known as a KN17 and it appeared to have broken up minutes after taking off.
The South Korean military said the missile, fired from the Pukchang region, reached an altitude of 71km before disintegrating. It said the launch violated UN resolutions and warned the North not to act rashly.
With the North acting in defiance of the pressure, the US could conduct new naval drills and deploy more ships and aircraft in the region, a US official said.
Japan condemned the launch as unacceptable and authorities stopped some train services in Japan as a precaution, in case the missile had been fired at Japan, a transit system spokesman said.
A Japanese military official said its navy yesterday completed an exercise with the USS Carl Vinson in the channel separating the Korean peninsula from Japan, meaning the US carrier had arrived in the Sea of Japan.
Kim Dong-yub, an expert at Kyungnam University’s Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, said North Korea might have got the data it wanted with the missile’s short flight, then blown it up in a bid to limit the anger of China, which warned Pyongyang against further provocation.
The Trump administration could respond to the test by speeding up plans for new US sanctions, including possible measures against specific North Korean and Chinese entities, said a US official, who declined to be identified.
“Something that’s ready to go could be taken from the larger package and expedited.”
The UN Security Council, which traditionally condemns all missile launches by Pyongyang, is likely to start discussing a statement to condemn the missile launch, said diplomats.
The South Korean politician expected to win a May 9 presidential election, Moon Jae-in, called the test an “exercise in futility.”
“We urge again the Kim Jongun regime to immediately stop reckless provocative acts and choose the path to cooperate with the international community,” Park Kwang-on, a spokesman for Moon, said, referring to the North Korean leader. Reuters