North Korea: Pyongyang Claims Successful Test Of New Missile Type

In January leader Kim Jong-Un boasted that Pyongyang was in the “final stages” of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in an apparent attempt to pressure the incoming U.S. president.

North Korea said yesterday it had successfully tested a new nuclear-capable intermediate-range ballistic missile, triggering a United States-led call for an urgent United Nations Security Council meeting after a launch seen as a challenge to President Donald Trump.

Aside from the diplomatic implications in the immediate perspective, the missile test flies in the face of United Nations resolutions that have barred North Korea from any use of ballistic missile technology.

This latest test is important because, if confirmed, North Korea would have a missile that could be launched anywhere in the country from a ground-based mobile vehicle. Initially he declined to answer reporter’s questions on the test, which suggests he wanted to be properly briefed first.

Appearing with Trump at a news conference at Trump’s estate in Florida, Abe condemned the missile launch as “absolutely intolerable”.

“The launch was predictable, even inevitable”, Michael Hayden, a retired U.S. Air Force general and former Central Intelligence Agency director, told CNBC.

A South Korean military source said the projectile was indeed likely an upgraded Musudan and suggested the North wanted to showcase its capabilities in the face of the new, hard-line USA administration.

“They are very far along in their ICBM testing project”, says Melissa Hanham, an East Asia researcher at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. The missile landed in the sea after flying about 500 kilometers. But he did not specifically outline what he would do to punish North Korea. So they have some way to go to fulfil Kim Jong Un’s inflated claim at New Year.

North Korea conducted two unauthorized nuclear test explosions a year ago and launched almost two dozen rockets in continuing efforts to expand its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

The Japanese government said there were no reports of damage to aircraft or ships in the area. Seoul’s military said it was part of armed protest against the new USA administration’s hard-line stance toward the DPRK.

The United States, Japan and South Korea suspect it is a disguised test of a Taepodong-2.

Last year, North Korea conducted its fourth and fifth atomic bomb tests and claimed a series of technical breakthroughs in its push for a long-range nuclear missile.

The Trump administration has promised to take a tough line against Pyongyang, but in his brief response on Sunday, the president said only that the U.S. stood “100%” by its ally Japan. The North Korean regime has been working on longer-range ICBMs despite heavy resistance in the worldwide community. Slapping Pyongyang with still more sanctions would only encourage it to sprint toward the completion of a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile. In response at that time, President-elect Trump tweeted, “It won’t happen”.

Finally, Gardner wrote, the United States should illuminate human rights abuses in North Korea by imposing sanctions on abusers and by supporting USA and global efforts to provide credible information and communication tools for the North Korean people.