UK, Japan to hike pace of sanctions against N. Korea: May

The reclusive state fired an intermediate-range Hwasong-12 over Japan early on Tuesday, which it said was a mere “curtain-raiser” for the North’s “resolute countermeasures” against ongoing US-South Korean military drills. “This dramatically undercuts the State Department – any offer of talks to North Korea has zero credibility if the president is not on board”.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) strongly denounced the U.S. exercises, according to the KCNA news agency.

Carl Baker, an expert in foreign and security policy in the Asia Pacific and a Director of Programs for the Washington-based think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) commented to Sputnik on Pyongyang’s possible motives.

Defying White House threats, North Korea sends a missile over Japan.

The device was about eight times more powerful than the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, according to NORSAR, a Norway-based group that monitors nuclear tests.

It seems that the latest attempts by both Russian Federation and China to curb the behavior of North Korea have fallen on deaf ears in Pyongyang, and with Donald Trump suggesting that talking to North Korea “is not the answer”, it’s hard to see a resolution of the conflict.

North Korea is expected to feature heavily in the talks after it launched a ballistic missile on Tuesday that passed over Japanese territory, prompting worldwide condemnation.

Asked by a reporter Sunday whether the USA would attack North Korea, Trump responded: “We’ll see”.

“In response to this illegal action, Prime Minister (Shinzo) Abe and I had agreed to work together and with others in the worldwide community to strengthen pressure against North Korea including by increasing the pace of sanctions”.

Two days after North Korea flew a missile over Japan, the US and South Korea have staged their own show of force involving the US’ state of the art stealth fighters.

Analysts say the North’s next escalation could be to fire multiple missiles over Japan simultaneously.

With the world condemning the action, the USA has a chance to assert leadership and maintain peace.

“Almost all of Europe is within striking range of North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles”, he added.

“If the President has made up his mind against talks with North Korea, that should be the end of the conversation”, Denmark said.

North Korea defends its weapons programs as necessary to counter perceived USA aggression, such as recent air maneuvers with South Korean and Japanese jets.

The launch came amid a threat from dictator Kim Jong Un to strike the US territory of Guam.

The unarmed missile launch came just weeks after both U.S. President Donald Trump and his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, praised North Korea for its restraint.

North Korea will not give up its plan to become a nuclear power.

President Moon Jae-in also approved recently the full deployment of South Korea’s THAAD antimissile battery, which was highly controversial earlier this year.

The UN Security Council denounced the latest missile test, unanimously demanding that Pyongyang halt its nuclear programme and “all related activities”. The North has carried out five nuclear tests, two of them past year, and says it has mastered both miniaturisation and re-entry technology to fit a working warhead onto a missile.

“The puppets in South Korea will never avoid catastrophes as long as they continue to run amok”, Rodong Sinmun said in the commentary.