‘Deep strike’ missiles fired in response to N. Korea
U.S. and South Korea fired a series of “deep strike” precision missiles into South Korean waters yesterday in a show of force against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who earlier in the day conducted an intercontinental ballistic missile test that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called a “new escalation of the threat.”
“Global action is required to stop a global threat,” Tillerson said in a statement yesterday evening. “Any country that hosts North Korean guest workers, provides any economic or military benefits, or fails to fully implement U.N. Security Council resolutions is aiding and abetting a dangerous regime.”
Tillerson’s statement, which offered the first public confirmation by the United States that the missile North Korea launched early yesterday was an intercontinental ballistic missile, called the test a “new escalation of the threat” to America and the world.
In direct response to the North Korean missile test, U.S. and South Korean soldiers launched “deep strike” missiles into South Korean territorial waters.
Pentagon spokeswoman Dana W. White said the missile exercise was meant to show “our precision fire capability.”
“We remain prepared to defend ourselves and our allies and to use the full range of capabilities at our disposal against the growing threat from North Korea,” she said in a statement. “The United States seeks only the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Our commitment to the defense of our allies, the Republic of Korea and Japan, in the face of these threats, remains ironclad.”
At the request of the U.S., Japan and South Korea, the United Nations Security Council was to hold an emergency session this afternoon. Tillerson said the emergency meeting was part of a U.S. response that would include “stronger measures to hold the DPRK accountable,” using an acronym for the isolated nation’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
President Trump took to Twitter to criticize Kim, asking, “Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?”
Trump said on Twitter that it’s “Hard to believe that South Korea ... and Japan will put up with this much longer.”
And he urged North Korea’s biggest ally, China, to “put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all!”
The prime danger from the U.S. viewpoint is the prospect of North Korea pairing a nuclear warhead with an ICBM. The latest U.S. intelligence assessment is that the North probably does not yet have that capability — putting a small-enough nuclear warhead atop an ICBM.
A U.S. scientist analyzing the height and distance of the launch said the missile could potentially reach Alaska.
Grinning broadly, Kim delighted in the global furor created by the launch, vowing last night to never abandon nuclear weapons and to keep sending Washington more “gift packages” of missile and atomic tests.