North Korea launches a
ballistic missile that flies about 435 miles
TOKYO
— North Korea fired a
ballistic missile early Sunday, sending it from a launch site near its border
with China some 450 miles into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
It was launched from the
same site where North Korea fired two mystery missiles that some analysts
thought could have been intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching
the mainland United States.
But the U.S. military said
that the flight pattern was “not consistent” with an ICBM and did not threaten
the United States.
Regardless, the apparent
success of the launch and the steady pace of firings will only heighten
tensions in the region.
Sunday’s launch is the
first since Moon Jae-in, a liberal who is promoting engagement with North
Korea, took office as South Korea’s new president Wednesday. Moon immediately
convened an emergency meeting of his national security council to discuss the
launch.
It also comes after
repeated warnings from President Trump to North Korea to stop — and China to
crack down on its errant neighbor. Trump will likely urge Beijing to use its
leverage over Pyongyang to punish it for this latest provocation.
In a statement late
Saturday, the White House said, “North Korea has been a flagrant menace for far
too long...Let this latest provocation serve as a call for all nations to
implement far stronger sanctions against North Korea.”
The statement also noted
the missile’s proximity to Russia: “With the missile impacting so close to
Russian soil – in fact, closer to Russia than to Japan – the President cannot
imagine that Russia is pleased.”
Analysts were still
working to identify the kind of missile launched Sunday morning local time.
U.S. Pacific Command,
based in Hawaii, said it had detected and assessed the missile, and “the flight
was not consistent with an intercontinental ballistic missile.” However, it did
not state what kind of missile it appeared to be.
“The North American
Aerospace Defense Command determined the missile launch from North Korea did
not pose a threat to North America,” Pacific Command spokesman Rob Shuford said
in a statement.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs
of Staff said that the missile was fired shortly after 5 a.m. North Korea time,
from Kusong, an area not far from the border with China.
In Tokyo, the Japanese
government said that the missile flew for 30 minutes. It strongly condemned the
“absolutely unacceptable” behavior.
“These repeated missile
launches by North Korea are a grave threat to our country and are in clear
violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe told reporters.
North Korea has been
testing missiles at a rapid rate over the past year, apparently working toward
leader Kim Jong Un’s ambition to develop an ICBM that can reach the United States.
The two most recent launches last
month were deemed to have failed, as they exploded within seconds. However,
Sunday’s missile appears to have been successful.
The site of the latest
launches is raising suspicions.
North Korea launched two
missiles in October last year from an air base in Kusong on North Korea’s west
coast, on the other side of the country from the usual intermediate-range
Musudan test site near Wonsan, on the east coast.
U.S. Strategic Command
said they were “presumed” to be Musudans, which are technically capable of
flying as far as 2,400 miles, putting Guam within range and almost reaching
Alaska.
But Jeffrey Lewis,
director of the East Asia nonproliferation program at the Middlebury Institute
of International Studies at Monterey in California, said at the time that there
was an “even chance” that they were intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
At a huge military parade that
Kim presided over last month, North Korea displayed two of its newest model
missiles, including the submarine-launched ballistic type it successfully fired
last year and the land-based version it launched last month.
One of the missiles looked
similar to the KN-08 intercontinental ballistic missile that North Korea had
included in previous parades. This missile has a theoretical range of about
7,500 miles, which is enough to reach all of the United States from North Korea.
It also put two ICBM
canisters, which protect solid-fueled missiles from the effects of the
environment, on the trucks that had carried the ICBMs previously. One may have
been a KN-14, another missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, although
it has a slightly shorter range.
Although there are still
plenty of technical hurdles to be overcome, many analysts believe North Korea
will eventually achieve Kim’s stated goal of developing an ICBM that can reach
the mainland United States.
Source: WashingtonPost
Source: WashingtonPost
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