North Korea Launches Medium-Range Missile Into Sea of Japan
By Lou Lorscheider February 11, 2017
North Korea fired an unidentified ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan early Sunday, a gesture widely interpreted as a challenge to the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Pyongyang issued no statement about the launch, but experts said it appeared to be a test-launch of an intermediate-range rocket, most likely a model capable of reaching targets in Japan. However, they added, there was no evidence that the North’s test involved a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a weapon that potentially could reach the United States.
North Korea made two unauthorized nuclear test explosions last year and launched nearly two dozen rockets in continuing efforts to expand its nuclear weapons and missile programs. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared in a speech on New Year’s Day that his country has “reached the final stage” in its program to build ICBMs, but Western experts have been skeptical about his forecast.
At the time, Trump answered Kim’s ICBM boast with one of his trademark Twitter messages: “It won’t happen!”
Trump briefed on launch, monitoring situation
At the time of the launch, late Saturday in Florida, Trump was dining with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. White House officials said the president was fully briefed about the missile firing, and they are closely monitoring the situation.
Commenting on the launch reports after their dinner, Trump said:
“I just want everybody to understand and fully know that the United States of America stands behind Japan, it’s great ally, 100 percent.”
Abe called North Korea's latest missile launch "intolerable" and urged North Korea to comply with United Nations Security Council resolutions.
When Trump welcomed Abe to Washington Friday, he emphasized that the United States is committed to the security of its key Asian ally.
“We will work together to promote our shared interests,” the president said at the White House, including “defending against the North Korean missile and nuclear threat.”
The United States has repeatedly vowed it will never accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed nation.
Same launch site used 4 months ago
South Korean military officials said the missile was launched at 7:55 a.m. local time (2255 Saturday UTC) from a military site at Banghyeon, the same place where the North test-launched powerful Musudan rockets twice in October. Such missiles are estimated to have an effective range of about 3,000 kilometers (1,865 miles).
Officials said the rocket crossed the Korean Peninsula from the launch site in western North Korea and headed east over the Sea of Japan, after a flight path of about 500 kilometers (310 miles).
North Korea-watchers reported late in January that the North Korean military had loaded missiles aboard two mobile launchers, a sign that test-firings could be imminent. They noted at the time, however, that the missiles appeared to be no more than 15 meters long, which would tend to rule out the possibility that a long-range weapon was involved.
Analysts are divided over how close Pyongyang is to realizing its full military ambitions, especially since it has never successfully test-fired an ICBM. However, most experts agree that the North has made considerable progress since Kim took over absolute power in the country following the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in December 2011.
World's demands ignored
For more than a decade, Washington and a vast majority of world governments have demanded that North Korea denuclearize the Korean peninsula. However, Western leaders have yet to devise a plan that would either compel the North to cooperate or create incentives for it to do so.
China-sponsored talks between Pyongyang and a six-nation panel have been stalled since 2009, when the communist North pulled out of the negotiations. The North carried out its first underground nuclear test explosion three years before the talks broke down.
Washington has since said the six-party talks could not resume until Kim’s regime in Pyongyang would recommit itself to halting all nuclear tests and scrapping its nuclear development program. That policy was agreed to during the administration of former President Barack Obama, and Trump’s government has reaffirmed it.
Pyongyang has so far rejected Western overtures and continues to resist world leaders’ attempts to bring it into compliance with a string of United Nations resolutions.
VOA’s Brian Padden in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
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