U.S. wants sanctions following N. Korea’s missile test

SEOUL, South Korea — The United States said Friday it would seek tougher U.N. Security Council sanctions on North Korea after it test-fired its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile, with leader Kim Jong Un vowing to expand his country’s “nuclear war deterrent” while preparing for a “long-standing confrontation” with the United States.

North Korean state media reported the North’s first long-range test since 2017, and South Korea and Japan said they detected it.

At U.N. headquarters Friday, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield said the U.S. would propose a measure “to update and strengthen” Security Council sanctions that were originally imposed after the North’s first nuclear test explosion in 2006 and were tightened over the years.

Thomas-Greenfield didn’t specify what those new measures might be as she urged the council to speak out unanimously against Pyongyang’s “egregious and unprovoked escalation” of its weapons program and prod the North to return to negotiations.

“It is clear that remaining silent, in the hope that the DPRK would similarly show restraint, is a failed strategy,” she said. DPRK is acronym for the country’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea.

Stressing North Korea’s economic troubles, veto-wielding China and Russia called last fall for lifting sanctions against their neighbor.

Russian Deputy Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva said Friday that further sanctions would only harm North Korea’s people, while Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun suggested that the U.S. didn’t do enough to respond to the North’s 2018 self-imposed pause on longrange missile and nuclear tests.

“It is right and proper for the U.S. side to show its goodwill … and work harder to stabilize the situation, build mutual trust and re-launch dialogue,” Zhang said.

North Korea didn’t speak at the council meeting.

Meanwhile, the U.S. imposed new sanctions of its own against five entities and individuals in Russia and North Korea over transferring sensitive items to the North’s missile program, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.

North Korean state TV dramatized the missile testing process like a Hollywood movie, showing Kim walking in slow motion in front of a giant missile in sunglasses and a black leather motorcycle jacket. Kim takes off his shades and nods, and the missile is shown being rolled out of the hangar.

The Hwasong-17, which was fired at a high angle to avoid the territorial waters of neighbors, reached a maximum altitude of 3,880 miles and traveled 680 miles during a 67-minute flight before landing in waters between North Korea and Japan, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said.

Analysts say that the missile could reach targets 9,320 miles away when fired on normal trajectory with a warhead weighing less than a ton. That would place the entire U.S. mainland within striking distance.

Believed to be about 82 feet long, the Hwasong-17 is the North’s longest-range weapon and, by some estimates, the world’s biggest road-mobile ballistic missile system. Thursday’s launch was its first full-range test.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin held separate telephone conversations with his counterparts in South Korea and Japan where they discussed response measures and vowed to strengthen defense cooperation, according to U.S. Defense Department statements.

Thursday’s test was North Korea’s 12th round of launches this year and the most provocative since U.S. President Joe Biden took office.