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Updated at 7am
NORTH KOREA HAS fired a ballistic missile over Japan and into the Pacific, responding to new UN sanctions with what appeared to be its furthest-ever missile flight amid high tensions over its weapons programmes.
The launch, from near Pyongyang, came after the United Nations Security Council imposed an eighth set of measures on the isolated country following its sixth nuclear test earlier this month.
It was by far its largest to date and Pyongyang said it was a hydrogen bomb small enough to fit onto a missile.
In New York, the Security Council called an emergency meeting for later today.
The US Pacific Command confirmed the rocket was an intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) and said it did not pose a threat to North America or to the US Pacific territory of Guam, which Pyongyang has threatened to bracket with “enveloping fire”.
Seoul’s defence ministry said it probably travelled around 3,700 km and reached a maximum altitude of 770 km.
It was “the furthest overground any of their ballistic missiles has ever travelled”, Joseph Dempsey of the International Institute for Strategic Studies said on Twitter.
Joseph Dempsey / Twitter#NorthKorea latest missile launch - at a rpt 3700km - is the furthest (overground) any of their ballistic missiles has ever travelled though
— Joseph Dempsey (@JosephHDempsey) September 14, 2017
Physicist David Wright, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, added:
“North Korea demonstrated that it could reach Guam with this missile, although the payload the missile was carrying is not known” and its accuracy was in doubt.
The North has raised global tensions with its rapid progress in weapons technology under leader Kim Jong-Un, who is closely associated with the programme and regularly pictured by state media overseeing launches and visiting facilities.
The North’s last missile launch, a Hwasong-12 IRBM just over two weeks ago, also overflew Japan’s main islands and was the first to do so for years.
But when Pyongyang tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July that appeared to bring much of the US mainland into range, it fired them on lofted trajectories that avoided passing over the archipelago nation.
“The North is sending a message which is, ‘we are not cowering before any sanctions and our warnings are not empty threats’,” Yang Moo-Jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul told AFP.
It has vowed the US would face ‘pain and suffering’ in retaliation for the UN sanctions.
‘Missile launch!’
Millions of Japanese were jolted awake by blaring sirens and emergency text message alerts after the missile was fired.
“Missile launch! missile launch! A missile appears to have been launched from North Korea,” loudspeakers blared on Cape Erimo, on Hokkaido’s southern tip.
Breakfast television programmes, which usually broadcast a light-hearted diet of children’s shows and gadget features, instead flashed up the warning:
Flee into a building or a basement.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tokyo could “never tolerate” what he called a “dangerous provocative action that threatens world peace”.
“If North Korea continues to walk down this path, it has no bright future,” he told reporters.
We must make North Korea understand this.
Tokyo had protested to Pyongyang in the “strongest words possible”, chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga added.
The missile overflew the US ally for around two minutes, reports said, but there were no immediate indications of objects falling onto Japanese territory.
US Defense Secretary James Mattis said Pyongyang had forced “millions of Japanese into the duck and cover”, reports said, while Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged China and Russia, Pyongyang’s main defenders, to take “direct actions” to rein it in.
The launch came a day after a North Korean organisation warned of a “telling blow” against Japan, accusing it of “dancing to the tune of the US” for supporting fresh UN sanctions.
“The four islands of the archipelago should be sunken into the sea by the nuclear bomb of Juche,” the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee (KAPPC) said in a statement, referring to the North’s national philosophy of “Juche” or self-reliance.
Oil shipments
In response to the launch, South Korea’s military immediately carried out a ballistic missile drill of its own, the defence ministry said, adding it took place while the North’s rocket was still airborne.
One Hyunmu missile travelled 250 kilometres into the East Sea, Korea’s name for the Sea of Japan – a trajectory intentionally chosen to represent the distance to the launch site at Sunan, near Pyongyang’s airport, it added.
But embarrassingly, another failed soon after being fired.
President Moon Jae-In told an emergency meeting of Seoul’s national security council that dialogue with the North was “impossible in a situation like this”, adding that the South had the power to destroy it.
But Seoul will decide next week whether to provide $8 million (€6.7 million) in humanitarian aid to the North.
The Security Council sanctions imposed on Monday are the strongest so far, banning the North’s textile trade and imposing restrictions on shipments of oil products.
But analysts expect them to do little to dissuade Pyongyang, which says it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against the threat of invasion by the US.
US Strategic Command chief Air Force General John Hyten told reporters following the launch that on the available information he was “assuming” the sixth test was an H-bomb.
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Seriously not cool Kim!
@TravellingTheWorld: all jokes aside I think this needs to be tackled head on, in many other instances where the US went to war it was for illegitimate reasons with a hidden agenda,
In this case they are not the aggressors and need to protect their people, and the very least they need to send missiles back over North Korea to show they ain’t arseing about any longer
@Shane Murphy: Missiles over North Korea. Where will they end up do you think?
@Shane Murphy: it’s not as simple as that. South Korea would be hit way too hard before anything or significance would be achieved.
@TravellingTheWorld: yeah like invading and destroying Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan on a pack of lies….I see a different aggressor….
@Johnnathan Biskalero: Those lads destroyed themselves, the yanks got rid of dictators in Iraq, Libya etc and they had a chance to set up democratic states.. but no, “let’s go back to the 8th century” they decided.
@KerryBlueMike: “…they had a chance to set up democratic states..” Straight from the Tommy Cooper school of geopolitics, ‘just like that, just like that…’
@KerryBlueMike: why did the yanks have any right to do anything? World policing again. And wonder why they dont shoot down the missiles that korea fire? They dont because an actual hit justifies their intent to begin war. They want the koreans to do something… Big war, big money…
@Michael Geraghty Bodycoach: Is your analysis that the US actually wants North Korea to have Nuclear weapons and use them so the US can then use the opportunity go to War with them? I think you may need to dial back your anti-American feelings a little bit
Lads, ye can’t be doin that.
Don’t be at it.
@M: Why are you writing in a stupid ‘Oirish’ manner?Why do so many Irish people do this?If a foreigner (sorry,non-national,LOL!) done the same,you’d be the first to complain.Just try and be educated.Not a simple paddy.
@M: Bejasus Begorrah.
@Kieran Conroy: get a life!!!
Humour. Irish people enjoy a bit of it well, most of us. I couldn’t give fiddler’s far who takes the piss out of us as long as it’s not the English.
@Kieran Conroy: lol “ done the same” !
@Terry Cahill: Down with that sort of thing! He’s ‘educated’, not a ‘simple paddy’. The irony is fantastic.
@TheHeathen: How is that ironic?
@Kieran Conroy: Id say your great Craic!
@Kieran Conroy: There was a rocket launch and you make an issue about how someone says something?
@Andy K: He was complaining about someone being uneducated and then uses the ‘done’. He ‘should of’ kept his mouth shut and acknowleged the original poster was having a bit of fun. Anything else you want explained?
@Kieran Conroy: if a foreigner DID the same. Talk about trying to be educated. Did is the past simple, whereas done is a past participle which means it must be preceded by an auxiliary verb.
@Kieran Conroy: … if a foreigner did the same…
So this is my take on how this plays out. America go in all guns blazing, China get involved on the side of Kim. Not cause they like him, but so as not to have an American influenced democracy on their boarder. North Korea will have every man woman and child fighting to the death to defend Kim. While all this is going on, no one is keeping an eye on Russia and Putin decides he wants to stretch his legs and starts stream rolling through the eastern side of Europe as America are too busy to help Europe. Crimea was him testing the water to see what the world would do. He knows that’s the world won’t do anything so it’s fair game from now on.
Is there anything to be said for another mass?!
@aboutallthethings: excellent analysis
@aboutallthethings: oh no ! Have enough trouble remembering to say three hail marys for the conversion of Russia when I was a kid !
@aboutallthethings:
Not so good an analysis actually, since it was the CIA who were meddling in Eastern Europe and while Putin has shown great restraint in recent years while all the world are being brainwashed to see Russia as “evil” by people who will burn your country to the ground and walk over the dead children’s corpses in the name of “freedom”.
@Paul Wr: “meddling”….. pesky kids! *shakes fist*
@aboutallthethings: Not far off.. but I think they will instead go on the offensive (even though being attacked) and try to take areas of the south. Meanwhile Putin (on Wednesday) ha amassed troops on the Belarus border with his eye keenly on taking a huge chunk of Lithuania (in order to access Karlingrad) Meanwhile US troops along with Danish,Polish,Norwegian are building up this week and next week in Stockholm and Gotland
@aboutallthethings: I had a dream about this exact thing happening about 6 weeks ago, Putin was flying planes over Ireland. Mental… glad it wasn’t completely inconceivable!
Team America are on it lads. Be grand
@León Flannagáin: Let’s hope so or he’ll wipe us all out.
@Deirdre D’Arcy Murphy:
@Deirdre D’Arcy Murphy: Honestly, do you honestly believe what you just posted. If so i worry for us all.
@Deirdre D’Arcy Murphy: You’re on here having a regular whinge on President Trump, now you want him to save you?
@León Flannagáin: gonna save the f@ckin day yeh!
@Brian Jones: Sarcasm my friend. Its called sarcasm…. A dead dog would smell that 20km against the wind.
@León Flannagáin: Misunderstood, he’s soooo wonwley.
@León Flannagáin: No what about team rest of the world? I am guessing that the telephone lines were very busy between world leaders but who knows what is best to do?
Japan has a defence army after the last world war and they are in a position now where they are not safe and need support.
Stopping trade is not enough. Where did North Korea get enough equipment to make rockets? Trade show in London?
@Gillian Weir Scully: They got the rocket motors from Ukraine, and god knows what else, Sold to them under the table by the US backed Right wing govt of Ukraine
@Gillian Weir Scully: joke… head… over
What a complete header.
Where’s James bond when you need him, but seriously tomorrow the world is going to change for the worse, me thinks the talking is over, and the shooting isn’t far off
Something needs to be done about this regime. This is taking the proverbial. All it takes is another miss fire or rocket failure and it lands somewhere it shouldn’t and it’s war.
@John Mc Grath: Indeed it has been going on too long… Bush, Clinton, Obama and now Trump
@TravellingTheWorld: What about Russia and China, they want him intact and he knows it.
@John Mc Grath: nothing would happen. In 1968 NK shot down a US spyplane with about 30 CIA aboard and Nixon did nothing. NK have them all by the nuts as they have Seoul in their cross hairs. They could reduce it to rubble in minutes.
Does anyone remember the film ‘ Team America: World Police’ and Hans Blix was in with Kim Jong Ill and he asked what would happen if we didn’t comply….. ‘ We would write a strongly worded letter’.
Kim has things right where he wants them. He has shown the world he has the nukes and his behaviour means he is unpredictable. No nation will confront him now. He will gradually be allowed back in to world fora and trade on condition he doesn’t use the nukes. His family will reign for generations. Mission accomplished for him.
Best comment of the day
@Kieran O’dwyer: you said it one , if he wasn’t such a loose cannon he would be dead already!
@Kieran O’dwyer: Trump is the major hiccup in your equation.
@Kieran O’dwyer: Exactly… He doesn’t really care about anything other than staying in power.
@Gerard Heery: Trump ??? are you for real it’s the bushes Clintons and Obamas who did nothing at all about it , and its worse Kim is getting, Trump ! Ya blame Trump
@Donal O Cofaigh: not blaming thump at all, just he’s unpredictable as how he’s going to deal with the situation, there’ll be no second pearl harbour!!
Stop acting the b*locks Kim
north korea has not attacked another nation since the 50s…even then it was a civil war that the US got involved in and used chemical weapons and napalm against the north..the japanese ruled and killed thousands of koreans…the US has invaded and plundered many countries and the japanese were a major part of world war 2 and brought the US into WW2 by attacking pearl harbour…North korea have every right to have these weapons at their disposal if it acts as a deterent against US invasion…they would never strike 1st….unlike the US who proved it by invading Iraq based on a lie and ruining the country…afganistan..libya….but never Israel who also possess these weapons!
@Robbie Moles: you make it sound as if Kim Jong Un was doing this for the benefit of the people of North Korea. Self-preservation and preserving the Kim dynasty is his only motivation.
Why can’t people in North Korea travel abroad? access the Internet? speak freely? Form a political opposition?
@Diaspora’d: thats a fair comment and i dont disagree…but if a few million people not being able to travel abroad or access the internet or a large scale invasion by the US and millions of dead koreons and another country ruined by so called liberators !! i know what sounds better…the western media make this country sound like its hell on earth…I bet there are more murders in the US per year and more crime thsn in north korea…
@Robbie Moles: get real..are you trying to push the benefits of living in a Totalitarian state like North Korea that it’s murder rate might be lower than an open society? See how far you would get criticizing your President in public? Sent to a gulag or put up against a wall and shot. Lots of first hand accounts from NK exiles.
@Diaspora’d: why are the people starving , working abroad with family held hostage to send money home to the Regime. Vomit inducing !
People looking to the US to see how they respond, yet is anybody wondering why Japan are seemingly doing nothing about violations to their airspace? A strongly worded letter?
@Rowan Murphy: Japan has advanced missile-intercepting technology on land and at sea and is investing in more. Japan has been very patient so far but needs the US to make it unequivocally clear that aggression by Kim against Japan or South Korea (Seoul can be struck by conventional weapons from the North) will not be tolerated. Trump needs to make it clear that any attack on an ally in the region will be regarded in the same way as an attack on New York or San Francisco. Beijing would also understand such a forceful message and up the pressure on Kim. I don’t believe anyone really wants war but the combination of an erratic Kim and a weak Whitehouse is a scary prospect.
@Rowan Murphy: Under the post-war constitution, Japan is notallowed to have offensive military forces. “the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes”.
@Rowan Murphy: If Japan does anything, China is like a giddy child more than happy to press a few buttons to eliminate an old foe
They were playin’ Hiroshima, Nagasaki, North Korean Roulette.
This Kim guy is asking for it at this stage . But the conspiracy theorists will say the Americans are making him do it to commence world war 3. Zzz. Maybe it’s time for trump to invade and show him “how you gotta behave “
@Ronan McDermott: dopiest suggestion of the day
No I don’t think so. Either way it would have little impact to Ireland if there was military conflict. How is it “dopey”? Kim misbehaves , trump softens his cough…. Dictator is taken out & North Koreans can have YouTube . What’s the problem ??
@Ronan McDermott:
Would have huge impact on Ireland if that region of the world went to war. Global economy would take a huge hit and we are very susceptible to global events.
And that’s not getting into the humanitarian issue or the deaths of millions if the US invade. Thats why your comment is the dopiest of the day/week
“altitude of 770 km” it’s grand lads he was aiming for the moon
@Paddy O Sullivan: Playing devil’s advocate here, but 770 km altitude is practically orbit, nevermind space, it’s not Japanese airspace. NK has sent up permanent objects that are now going over lots of countries every day. Is this the new social media/news media horseshite to replace dodgy dossiers??
@WatchfulAxe: Aye, they sent up satellites, but 2 important differences
1) There is a difference in a satellite orbiting above your head and a nuclear capable missile flying above your head
2) The satellite is not supposed to fall to earth, the missile will
@WatchfulAxe: You’re right to question. The western propaganda machine is well developed. The WMDs in Iraq were never found, because they were a fabrication. Not saying these missiles aren’t real, but there do seem to be inconsistencies in the official line.
Please stop with this terrible scare mongering journalism. Nothing is going on in South Korea and no one cares, so why should Ireland care?
@John O Connor: Muppet.
@John O Connor: you should care.
Why? Cos you don’t research anything else except the journal? Clown, get your facts straight
@John O Connor: The south have launched ballistic missiles in response , perhaps you might be a little less offensive when commenting .
https://koreas.liveuamap.com/
The south have been doing this for years…The south have giant speakers on the border speaking how Mr. Kims brother was murdered, again, why care ?
@John O Connor: Cos my brother lives there and besides, it is a major geopolitical event……..
And your brother will tell you that it doesn’t make national news. National news is the egg scandal in Europe…and the Irish news is North Korea… zzzzz
@John O Connor: It doesn’t make the National News?? It bloody well does make the National News both in Korea and here in Japan where it’s on the news pretty much all the time. It’s flipping frustrating and not a little scary to be woken up at 6 am and 7 am in the mornings by the missile alert alarms. They’re way worse than earthquake and tsunami warnings.
It made the news in Korea for 5 minutes, then the egg scandal came back on. You should take advantage of it and take a trip to Guam, hotels are cheap now. I get an emergency alert to my phone about the hot weather, not about the North, because they know how it is. The problem are the gimps in Ireland who feel they know the level of tension over here. I live 35km from the border, maybe they know something I don’t ?
@David O’ Donoghue: Don’t feed the troll
Sorry Larissa, I’ll hide under my bed right away and keep watching the Journal for updates when I’m safe to come out.
A Great War between these terribly homogeneous nations may be necessary for the realisation of our multicultural new world order.
Ah now Kim boy your just taking it to far now ,, it’s all fun and games till someone gets hurt
Why does Japan not shoot them down and call Kim’s bluff.
@Seán Dillon: because if they miss, which is a fair possibility, kim Jong un will be emboldened and know he can send missiles off with no problems.
@Seán Dillon: i think Japan are still restricted militarily since WW2 . American bases there still etc. Need approval not sure from whom UN OR USA to go into action. Subject to correction.
“Leo the Lip” threat to put NAMA in charge of all house building in Eire pushed Kim Jun Un’ s button
The south have launched missiles in response , interesting time to be had .
https://koreas.liveuamap.com/
“You’re bweaking my balls Hans Blix”
@Johnny Gunn: He’s probably is so ronery
Small man syndrome at its worst.
This development is almost making me fall asleep at the computer.
@Ciarán Masterson: watch some porn thatll keep you awake :)
@Aidan Martin:
I was implying my lack of fear about the firing of the missile.
@Ciarán Masterson: we are safe so ? Can I relax now ? I’m very close to that “country” geographical at the moment and for the next few weeks but I am relaxing now that I know you are on the job . Thanks !
Good man Kim. Keep the world on its toes.
@Psyarron:
I don’t think they have blanket cover of missile defence. That path might not actually be covered
ok……. that was actually for ger kelly below.
This is going to get interesting,I wonder where the misfile is heading.
How can Japan allow that. It goes to show North Korea actually do want a war
Why ? Cos they are testing their defence missiles ?
@John O Connor: spot on.what nation would not conduct these tests when constantly threatened. The only nation that wants war (as usual) is america.
Don’t treat Kim as a cartoon character,his people would follow him into Hell and die defending their borders ,A Perfect Storm( nuclear )if we don’t get a consensus of agreement between the Three Powers .USA China and Russia and they agree on a policy of containment.
The rest of are just on the sidelines.
Why is Japan not shooting this rocket down, its flying into its airspace?
No chance of duvet day in Japan.
A 770km high rocket is FAR AWAY Dougal
It is amazing to me that Japan does not destroy these test missiles in flight as they approach their territory.
How do they know they are just tests, why do they not demonstrate that their territory cannot be penetrated?
Don’t know what the end game is, but this tolerance seems very odd.
Demagogues need to be stopped before they lose the run of themselves, if we are not to have another feeble Munich, Peace in our time nonsense that allowed Hitler to run amok in Europe.
Just put a Tomahawk missile through Kim’s bedroom window at 3am . Crisis is over . China and Russia will do nothing .
How will this effect the housing market and more importantly my Portfolio of properties, every person southsude of the Liffey will be thinking right about now.
Last time he did this the market’s went through the floor. Billions won by anymore who bet on the market’s going down . Didn’t happen this time. Don’t think there will be too much of a reaction this time
@TheGrey Gimp: I wouldn’t be putting too much store in financial markets getting predictions right , not with their track record .
I believe Dennis Rodman (Kim’s mate)Can sort him out.Send in Dennis.
Someday those fish are fish are going to rise up and attack Kim back. Doesn’t he know that Japan can get sushi from elsewhere. Killing all the fish in the sea insit a sneaky way to push Japan over the edge
That big bomb is his dick .
have your say