North Korea fires Scud-class missile
Print Edition
NORTH Korea test-fired a ballistic missile yesterday for the third time in less than three weeks, earning a rebuke from US President Donald Trump who said it showed “great disrespect” for neighboring China.
The launch of the Scud-class short-range projectile, which fell close to Japan, was North Korea’s 12th ballistic missile test this year — in defiance of UN sanctions warnings and American threats of possible military action.
It went ahead despite tough talk from Trump, who promised last week at the G7 summit that the “big problem” of North Korea “will be solved.”
North Korea “has shown great disrespect for their neighbor, China, by shooting off yet another ballistic missile ... but China is trying hard!” Trump said in a tweet yesterday.
Trump has urged China to do more to press Pyongyang to curb its missile and nuclear programs.
South Korea’s military said the Scud-type missile traveled for 450 kilometers.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe swiftly condemned the test — the second time this year that a North Korean missile has fallen close to Japan’s shores — vowing concerted action with the US. “We will never tolerate North Korea’s continued provocations that ignore repeated warnings by the international community,” Abe told reporters.
North Korea has been stepping up efforts towards its ultimate goal, developing an intercontinental ballistic missile that can deliver a nuclear warhead to mainland America.
Despite Trump’s strident warnings of possible military intervention, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis said in an interview which aired on Sunday before the launch that a war with North Korea would be “catastrophic.”
The latest launch demonstrates Pyongyang’s confidence and its determination to secure leverage in any future negotiations with the US, said Cho Han-bum, analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in ordered a meeting of the national security council to assess the launch, which came a day after North Korea said its leader Kim Jong Un had overseen a test of a new anti-aircraft weapons system.
Seoul condemned the missile test as a “grave threat” and a challenge to Moon, who advocates dialogue with Pyongyang in a break from his conservative predecessors.
That North Korea “repeated such provocations after the inauguration of our new leadership ... is a direct challenge to our demand for peace and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” South Korea’s foreign ministry said.
Following its test-firing earlier this month of what analysts said was its longest-range rocket yet, the UN Security Council vowed to push all countries to tighten sanctions against Pyongyang.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
