South Korean news agency says North Korea fires new missile

SEOUL, June 22 (Reuters) – Images in March of a smiling Kim Jong Un inspecting a silver sphere, purported to be a miniaturised nuclear warhead but likened in the media to a disco ball, burnished the North Korean leader’s worldwide image as deluded and reckless.

“These repeated provocative actions… undermine global security and dialogue”, he said, calling for North Korea to “fully comply with its obligations under worldwide law, not to threaten with or conduct any launches using ballistic missile technology and to refrain from any further provocative actions”.

Well, Mark, the general feeling is that North Korea is trying to garner worldwide attention, as a high-level North Korean foreign ministry official is now in China.

The Musudan is an intermediate-range missile that North Korea has taken much interest in this year.

Later Wednesday, the JCS said the North fired another suspected Musudan, but it wasn’t immediately clear if it succeeded.

“We exchanged views on North Korea’s ballistic missile launch and shared our concerns”, Chikahito Harada told reporters. The North was slapped with the strongest United Nations sanctions in two decades after it conducted a fourth nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch earlier this year. The test-launch however, once again appeared to be “unsuccessful”, according to USA and Seoul military sources.

A Japanese defence ministry spokesman said it had reached an altitude of 1,000 kilometres and “exhibited a certain functionality”.

The U.S. Strategic Command in Hawaii said that its systems detected and tracked the two suspected missiles, which fell into the Sea of Japan.

“They must have been working extremely hard and to a given time frame in order to make it work”, said Yang, who is also a policy adviser to the South Korean military.

Japanese broadcaster NHK quoted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as saying such tests “cannot be tolerated”. “We are monitoring and continuing to assess the situation in close coordination with our regional allies and partners”, said U.S. State Department spokesperson John Kirby.

The North also hailed the successful test of an engine specifically designed for an ICBM that would “guarantee” an eventual nuclear strike on the U.S. mainland.

Reclusive North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 US soldiers are stationed in South Korea to deter possible aggression from North Korea.

The North, however, has already deployed a variety of missiles that can reach most targets in South Korea and Japan, including American military bases in the countries. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.