North Korea missile test: regime has
'disrespected China', says Trump
US says initial indications suggest
test was unsuccessful
Rex Tillerson had warned of
‘catastrophic consequences’ of missile program
Staff and agencies in Seoul
Saturday 29 April 2017 00.44 BST First published on Friday
28 April 2017 22.53 BST
Donald Trump has condemned North Korea, saying it “disrespected
the wishes of China”, after Pyongyang test-fired a ballistic missile.
The unsuccessful test comes as the United States pushed for
tougher sanctions to curb the country’s nuclear threat.
Writing on Twitter, the US president said Pyongyang had
defied Chinese president Xi Jinping by going ahead with the launch.
South Korea’s military said the test of the missile took
place near Bukchang in South Pyeongan Province early on Saturday morning.
A US government source told the Reuters news agency that
initial indications suggested the test was unsuccessful.
The US military’s Pacific Command said the missile did not
leave North Korean territory.
“US Pacific Command detected what we assess was a North
Korean missile launch at 10:33am Hawaii time ... The ballistic missile launch
occurred near the Pukchang airfield,” PACOM spokesman Commander Dave Benham
said in a statement.
“The missile did not leave North Korean territory.”
Japan joined in criticism of the test launch, saying it was
absolutely unacceptable and a violation of UN resolution.
A US official said the Trump administration could respond by
speeding up its plans for new US sanctions against Pyongyang, including
possible measures against specific North Korean and Chinese entities.
“It’s possible that something could be sped up,” the
official said of the potential for imposing new unilateral sanctions on North
Korea. “Something that’s ready to go could be taken from the larger package and
expedited.”
The official said the missile launch was the kind of
“provocation” that had been anticipated ahead of South Korea’s 9 May election,
and that the president could use the test-firing to further press China to do
more to rein in North Korea.
The launch comes with tensions high on the Korean peninsula,
with this the latest in a series of missile launches by the North and warnings
from Trump’s US administration that it was running out of patience.
At the UN security council on Friday, Washington pushed for
tougher sanctions to confront the North Korean threat, piling pressure on China
to rein in its ally while warning it was keeping military options “on the
table”. Trump himself of Thursday warned of the prospect of a “major, major
conflict” with North Korea.
The US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, warned that
failure to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile abilities could lead to
“catastrophic consequences”, while China and Russia cautioned Washington
against threatening military force to solve the problem.
“Failing to act now on the most pressing security issue in
the world may bring catastrophic consequences,” Tillerson said in his first
remarks to the council as secretary of state.
The United States was not pushing for regime change and
preferred a negotiated solution, but Pyongyang, for its own sake, should
dismantle its nuclear and missile programs, he said.
“The threat of a nuclear attack on Seoul, or Tokyo, is real,
and it’s only a matter of time before North Korea develops the capability to
strike the US mainland,” Tillerson said.
While Tillerson repeated the Trump administration’s position
that all options are on the table if Pyongyang persists with its nuclear and
missile development, Yi said military threats would not help.
The Russian deputy foreign minister, Gennady Gatilov, also
said on Friday the use of force would be “completely unacceptable”.
AFP and Reuters contributed to this report
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