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NORTH KOREA FIRED a ballistic missile on Sunday, drawing a strong response from US President Donald Trump who vowed “100%” support for key ally Japan at a press conference with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The missile, the first test since Trump became president, was launched around 22.55 Irish time on Saturday, from Banghyon air base in the western province of North Pyongan, and flew east towards the Sea of Japan, the South Korean defence ministry said.
It flew about 500 kilometres before falling into the sea, a ministry spokesman said, adding the exact type of missile had yet to be identified.
“Today’s missile launch… is aimed at drawing global attention to the North by boasting its nuclear and missile capabilities”, the ministry said in a statement.
“It is also believed that it was an armed provocation to test the response from the new US administration under President Trump,” it added.
Trump responded with an assurance to the visiting Abe that Washington was committed to the security of its key Asian ally.
“I just want everybody to understand and fully know that the United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100%,” Trump said, without elaborating.
Abe denounced the launch as “absolutely intolerable” while top government spokesman Yoshihide Suge told reporters in Tokyo it was “clearly a provocation to Japan and the region”.
North Korea is barred under UN resolutions from any use of ballistic missile technology but six sets of UN sanctions since Pyongyang’s first nuclear test in 2006 have failed to halt its drive for what it insists are defensive weapons.
‘Clear provocation’
Last year the country conducted numerous tests and launches in its quest to develop a nuclear weapons system capable of hitting the US mainland.
A South Korean army official quoted by Yonhap news agency ruled out the possibility of a long-range missile test, describing the device as an upgraded version of the North’s short-range Rodong missile.
Seoul-based academic Yang Moo-Jin said the latest test was “a celebratory launch” to mark the February 16 birthday of Kim Jong-Il, late ruler and father of current leader Kim Jong-Un.
Pyongyang often celebrates key anniversaries involving current and former leaders with missile launches, Yang, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, told AFP.
South Korea’s acting president Hwang Gyo-Ahn vowed a “corresponding punishment” in response to the launch, which came on the heels of a visit to Seoul by new US Defense Secretary James Mattis earlier this month.
Mattis had warned Pyongyang that any nuclear attack would be met with an “effective and overwhelming” response.
Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, spoke to his South Korean counterpart Kim Kwan-Jin on the phone and agreed to “seek all possible options” to curb future provocations by the North, Seoul’s presidential office said in a statement.
In January leader Kim Jong-Un boasted that Pyongyang was in the “final stages” of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in an apparent attempt to pressure the incoming US president. Trump shot back on Twitter, saying “It won’t happen.”
James Char, senior analyst at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore, said the launch was Pyongyang’s “way of showing characteristic defiance against… Trump”.
Test for Trump
Washington has repeatedly vowed that it will never accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed nation and the latest launch poses a test for Trump, who will need the help of Beijing, Pyongyang’s closest ally, to deal with the reclusive state.
Relations between the two superpowers have thawed in recent days after Trump reaffirmed Washington’s “One China” policy in what he described as a “very warm” telephone conversation with President Xi Jinping.
“The recent Trump-Xi phone call would be considered an important platform from which the two powers will move forward,” Char said.
Analysts are divided over how close Pyongyang is to realising its full nuclear ambitions, especially as it has never successfully test-fired an ICBM.
But all agree it has made enormous strides in that direction since Kim took over after the death of his father in December 2011.
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Oh great two mentalers want to play war.
This is how North Korea keeps the foreign aid/bribery flowing. They check that each new administration knows the deal. They’ve been at this game for a long time now. North Korea has no intention of nuking Japan or South Korea and all involved know that. Articles like this are ridiculous.
There is a cartoon like quality to Trump
Trump impersonating Alex Baldwin impersonating him at that press conference..
Will Trump be the first US President to declare illegal war and hostilities by Twitter?
“Last year the country conducted numerous tests and launches in its quest to develop a nuclear weapons system capable of hitting the US mainland.”
This is normal behaviour from north Korea. Trump will pay them off and get China to keep them on a leash, same as Obama, Bush and Clinton did. There’s not much else anyone can do about them.
Wow, thanks for such an informative and insightful comment. None of us ever knew that.
@OpenBorders: Kim’s father ate 2 dogs a day, haven’t a clue what Kim eats, probably Swiss cheese all the way?
The that guy Kim is a complete nutter, he is going to do serious damage in the not so distant future, that what it takes before any country will do any
@Mick Hannigan: the damage that the North Korean maniac does is internal.
The damage that Trump will do will be external and internal.
@Mick Hannigan: The only reason Kim is still in power and his farther before him is NK is lacking in valuable natural resources to be exposed by the west. Not even China is bothered with them and have their claws deep into Africa instead. If massive oil fields are discovered tomorrow in NK suddenly you would see a huge “humanitarian” effort to free their people by the US, UK, French etc… military.
Here’s a country that is anti US, has weapons of mass destruction. Will the US invade like they did to Iraq and want to do to Iran? He’ll no, no oil, not worth their young soldiers lives.
The more likely strategy would be to totally disable and destroy NKs military infrastructure from the air should the normal policy of trying to contain NK fail.
@B9xiRspG: might have more to do with china’s support of the regime. All parties however are accountable for the suffering of the north korean people, who live lives animals dont have to endure, by not standing up to this family line of psychopathic megalomaniacs
Every time Kim launches a missile it’s the same talk from the US. No action only talk
@mrmeade: China has Kims back but god knows who has Kim’s belly lol.
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