N Korea: Missile can hit US bases

SEOUL—North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatened US military bases across the Pacific after North Korea’s test of a powerful new missile, prompting emergency UN Security Council talks late on Wednesday on curbing Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

Kim, who personally monitored Wednesday’s Musudan missile test, applauded a “great event” that significantly bolstered the North’s preemptive nuclear attack capability, the official KCNA news agency reported.

“We have the sure capability to attack in an overall and practical way the Americans in the Pacific operation theater,” Kim was quoted as saying.

4,000-km range

The Musudan has a theoretical range of anywhere between 2,500 and 4,000 kilometers, with the upper estimate covering US military bases as far away as Guam.

After a string of failures in recent months, North Korea tested two Musudans on Wednesday, one of which flew 400 km into the Sea of Japan.

KCNA said the missile had been fired at a high angle to simulate its full range, and had reached a maximum height of more than 1,400 km.

The test “marked an important occasion in further strengthening the nuclear attack capacity of our state,” Kim said.

Int’l outcry

The launch was condemned by the international community, and the UN Security Council met for closed-door consultations on how best to respond.

France’s Deputy UN Ambassador Alexis Lamek, whose country holds the council presidency, told reporters after the meeting that Security Council members had been united in “deep concern and opposition” to the test which was a clear violation of UN resolutions.

Existing UN measures prohibit North Korea from using ballistic missile technology.

Defense system

The United States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato), Japan and South Korea also denounced the test, with US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter urging the expansion of missile defense systems in the region.

“We need to stay ahead of the threat,” Carter said.

Seoul and Washington are currently in talks about deploying the advanced US THAAD (Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense) missile system in South Korea—a move vehemently opposed by China.

Worrying step

Government officials said the Musudan launch marked another worrying step forward for a weapons program that aspires to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of delivering a nuclear strike on the US mainland.

“We can’t deny that [North Korea’s] technological development is making progress, and the situation is alarming,” Japanese government spokesperson Koichi Hagiuda told reporters.

North Korea has publicly displayed an ICBM, called the KN08, which uses the same engine technology as the Musudan but has never been test-fired.

Moratorium

Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California, said the international community had to find a way to get Pyongyang to accept a missile test moratorium.

“If we do nothing, this ends in a successful flight test of the Musudan-based KN-08,” he said.