North Korea Conducts Intermediate Range
Ballistic Missile Test
File photo taken in October 2015 shows a large missile believed to be
an intercontinental ballistic missile in a military parade at
Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung Square.(Kyodo via AP Images)
By Solange
Reyner | Saturday, 11 Feb 2017
07:48 PM
|
North Korea on Saturday fired a ballistic missile test,
the South Korean Yonhap News Agency reports, the first since
President Donald Trump took office.
The missile was launched around 5:55 p.m. Eastern from Banghyeon in North
Pyongan Province and landed in the Sea of Japan. It flew about 300 miles, the
South's Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
"Our assessment is that it is part of a show of force in response to the new
U.S. administration's hardline position against the North,"
the office said according to Reuters.
"The military is determining if the missile is the Musudan intermediate-range
ballistic missile," a military source told the Yonhap News Agency.
The Musudan missile has a reported maximum estimated range of 2,500 miles.
A
State Department official told CNN it was "aware of reports and
monitoring the situation carefully."
Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee,
called North Korea's actions "foolhardy," and it should "only steel our resolve
to deploy missile defense systems and make the North Korean regime’s
provocations as feckless as they are irresponsible. It’s time the regime had to
face consequences for its behavior and that we said, ‘enough is enough.’”
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in early January said that his country was
close to testing an intercontinental ballistic missile, putting the U.S. on edge
and eliciting a warning tweet from President Donald Trump.
"Research and development of cutting-edge arms equipment is actively
progressing and ICBM rocket test launch preparation is in its last stage,"
Kim said.
Trump's new Defense Secretary James Mattis last week promised an "overwhelming"
response to any attack mounted by Kim.
"North Korea continues to launch missiles, develop its nuclear weapons
program and engage in threatening rhetoric and behavior," he said at a press
conference in Seoul on Friday.
Trump, while posing for photos with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and
their wives before dinner Saturday night in Mar-a-Lago, Fla., ignored questions
shouted to him about the North Korea missile test.
At pre-dinner photo op w- PM Abe, Pres Trump declines comment on reported
North Korean missile launch.
The UN has placed sanctions on North Korea over nuclear and ballistic
missile testing, most recently imposing a cap on coal exports, but that
hasn’t stopped Kim as his country’s nuclear capabilities have sharply
increased.
North Korea conducted 20 ballistic missile tests in 2016 but has never
successfully flight-tested an intercontinental ballistic missile. Saturday's
test was a step in that direction, says retired Lt. General Mark Hertling.
"That's the goal of the North Korean politicians," he told CNN. "This
intermediate ballistic missile is certainly dangerous. It has a greater
range than some of the Musudan missiles that they have been testing prior to
that. And it's not only a concern for the United States to hit the mainland,
but it also has concerns for all of our Asia partners."
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