Ballistic Missiles Test Shows Capability To Attack US In Pacific: North Korea

On Wednesday the U.S. military officials and South Korea claimed North has launched two intermediate-range missiles from the east coast and one was a failure where as the second reached high altitude and then plunged into the sea about 400 km away.

The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on Wednesday local time to condemn the North’s June 22 Musudan launches.

North Korea said it successfully launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of hitting US military operations in the Pacific, prompting the U.S.to call on the United Nations Security Council to take action on the isolated nation.

The test came on the same day that scholars and officials from the six countries part of the stalled talks on North Korea’s nuclear disarmament – China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the US – met informally in Beijing.

That is far enough to reach the USA territory and military bases in Guam, though it has never been fully flight tested.

“The test-firing was successfully conducted without having any slightest effect to the security of surrounding countries”, North Korea’s state-run news agency KCNA said in a statement.

The first launch failed over the Sea of Japan, according to South Korean and U.S. officials.

This means that North Korea could not strike Guam or Okinawa, which host the bases where the United States would gather its strategic assets before deploying them to the Korean Peninsula in the event of a crisis.

North Korea’s state media on Thursday celebrated the success of a mid-range ballistic missile test from the previous day, as the world ponders the best way to respond to Pyongyang’s latest break from United Nations resolutions.

A statement from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the suspected first Musudan launch Wednesday from the east coast city of Wonsan failed. Japan’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that the missile appeared to have reached an altitude of 1,000 kilometers.

“Had it been fired at its normal angle, it would have flown to its full range”. 6 kilometers (878.3 miles) before landing 400 kilometers away in waters the North had targeted.

Choe Son-Hui, deputy director-general of the North American affairs bureau in Pyongyang’s foreign ministry, said in Beijing: “For now, we have no thoughts about taking part in talks to discuss the DPRK’s denuclearisation”.

The North Korean Rodong 1 ballistic missile on a mobile launcher.

Musudan is named by outsiders after a village near its test site. The Hwasong-10 means our transportation method has clearly succeeded.

Shortly after that Pyongyang launched a satellite, widely seen as a test of long-range missile technology. Some 28,500 USA servicemembers are stationed on the peninsula.

UNITED NATIONS/WASHINGTON – (UPDATE – 10:02 a.m) The UN Security Council held closed-door consultations late Wednesday about the latest missile launch by North Korea, which Pyongyang claims poses a direct threat to U.S. military bases in the Pacific.

“We’re very pleased because we now can confidently cope with whatever nuclear war the USA launches” on the North, North Korean diplomat Choe Son Hui told reporters in Beijing on Thursday, after attending a security forum.

The North has pursued missile and nuclear development in tandem, vowing to build nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles capable of reaching the US mainland.

Kim has consistently ignored warnings about his nuclear weapon plans after repeated tests of warheads earlier this year.

“White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest on Wednesday told reporters that North Korea’s actions were “provocative actions” in violation of their worldwide obligations”.

Defense Minister Gen Nakatani on Thursday lifted an order for the Self-Defense Forces to shoot down any North Korean missile posing a danger to Japan.

Even Pyongyang’s ally, China, voted for those sanctions in March, following North Korea’s fourth nuclear test. But South Korean officials have said the North doesn’t yet possess such a weapon.

The frenzied tests show how desperate the North is to overcome technical problems with the missile, which was supposedly already deployed warfare-ready in 2014.