North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile that flew higher than any of its previous efforts, shattering a respite from military tests and reminding the world of its ability to launch missiles capable of landing far from the Korean peninsula.
The Pentagon said it believed the projectile was an intercontinental ballistic missile that travelled roughly 1,000 km eastward before plunging into the Sea of Japan. Japanese broadcaster NHK reported that the missile remained airborne for 50 minutes and likely landed in the waters of the country's exclusive economic zone, citing the country's defense ministry.
The latest act of North Korean aggression demonstrated military advances that have expanded the range of the country’s ballistic missiles and imperil more than just the country’s close neighbours. The projectile soared higher than any previous North Korean launch, Defence Secretary James Mattis said, part of a drive to build missiles that “can threaten everywhere in the world”.
Donald Trump was briefed while the missile was “still in the air”, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe convened a meeting of cabinet officials. The South Korean military said it quickly responded with a missile test of its own.
“We will take care of it,” Mr Trump said after the launch, calling it “a situation we will handle”.
Japanese officials had been bracing for an imminent missile launch, saying they had detected suspicious radio signals. North Korea has menaced Japan in recent months, firing a ballistic missile over Hokkaido in September — the second time it hurled a missile over Japan — and warning that the nation should be “sunken into the sea” by a nuclear strike.
The firing marks the latest escalation of a global standoff with an increasingly assertive North Korea. The nuclear-armed hermit state has repeatedly displayed its military prowess in recent months, combining ballistic missile launches with threats of destroying Japan, the United States and the US territory of Guam. It tested a powerful hydrogen bomb for the first time.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson released a statement saying North Korea’s “relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them must be reversed”. While Mr Tillerson said “diplomatic options remain viable for now,” such constraints have so far failed to halt North Korea’s belligerence. The country has forged ahead with military tests despite successive rounds of United Nations sanctions targeting the country’s economy.
Mr Trump has returned rhetorical fire, repeatedly threatening North Korea with military force — a warning his top aides have echoed — and mocking North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as “Little Rocket Man”. He recently named North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, restoring a label that was lifted in 2008.
North Korea has called Mr Trump’s threats of a military response tantamount to a declaration of war. The President drew a rare personal rebuke from Kim Jong Un himself, who called Mr Trump a “mentally deranged US dotard”.
