Hours after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson mounted an effort at the United Nations to rally pressure against Kim Jong Un’s regime, North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile.
According to a text message from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the missile, which was fired at 5:30 a.m. Saturday local time from northeast of Pyongyang, appears to have failed.
It didn’t leave North Korean territory and posed no threat to North America, said the U.S. Pacific Command. The Associated Press reported, citing an unidentified U.S. official that the missile broke up minutes after launch and was likely a medium-range KN-17 ballistic missile.
A growing divergence between North Korea and its main ally China was referenced to by President Donald Trump in a tweet shortly after the launch: “North Korea disrespected the wishes of China & its highly respected President when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad!” Since the two leaders met in Florida earlier this month, Trump has praised Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s actions on North Korea.
In order to prevent it from obtaining the capability to hit North America with a nuclear weapon, Trump has stepped up pressure on North Korea. If China fails to do more to curb its neighbor’s activities, he has threatened to act unilaterally.
Including a failed test earlier this month following a high-profile military parade through Pyongyang, Kim’s regime has test-fired ballistic missiles six times this year. He had claimed in January to be almost ready to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile that would threaten the continental U.S. and since coming to power after his father’s death in 2011, he has launched dozens of projectiles and conducted three nuclear tests.
China had warned Kim’s regime it would impose further sanctions if it conducted a sixth nuclear test, Tillerson told Fox News earlier this week. Global Times, a nationalist newspaper affiliated with Communist Party, warned earlier this month that another nuclear test might prompt oil curbs and China banned coal imports from North Korea this year.
“The Security Council is mobilized,” Francois Delattre, France’s ambassador to the UN, said in reaction to news of the North Korean missile launch hours after the Security Council met to discuss the country. “The Security Council has to assume its responsibilities to be very firm in terms of the implementation of existing sanctions, in terms of adopting new sanctions if necessary, and tightening the regime of sanctions.”
Call to all nations to cut diplomatic and economic ties with North Korea was given by Tillerson at the UN on Friday.
Tillerson proposed three ways to pressure North Korea speaking before the United Nations Security Council for the first time as the top U.S. diplomat: UN member states should “fully implement” existing sanctions against North Korea, downgrade or suspend diplomatic ties with the country and increase its financial isolation with new and tighter sanctions.
“North Korea exploits its diplomatic privileges to fund its illicit nuclear and missile technology programs, and constraining its diplomatic activity will cut off the flow of needed resources,” Tillerson said Friday. Normal ties with the country “are simply not acceptable,” he added, urging economic sanctions against nations that do business with North Korea.
(Source:www.bloomberg.com)
According to a text message from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the missile, which was fired at 5:30 a.m. Saturday local time from northeast of Pyongyang, appears to have failed.
It didn’t leave North Korean territory and posed no threat to North America, said the U.S. Pacific Command. The Associated Press reported, citing an unidentified U.S. official that the missile broke up minutes after launch and was likely a medium-range KN-17 ballistic missile.
A growing divergence between North Korea and its main ally China was referenced to by President Donald Trump in a tweet shortly after the launch: “North Korea disrespected the wishes of China & its highly respected President when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad!” Since the two leaders met in Florida earlier this month, Trump has praised Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s actions on North Korea.
In order to prevent it from obtaining the capability to hit North America with a nuclear weapon, Trump has stepped up pressure on North Korea. If China fails to do more to curb its neighbor’s activities, he has threatened to act unilaterally.
Including a failed test earlier this month following a high-profile military parade through Pyongyang, Kim’s regime has test-fired ballistic missiles six times this year. He had claimed in January to be almost ready to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile that would threaten the continental U.S. and since coming to power after his father’s death in 2011, he has launched dozens of projectiles and conducted three nuclear tests.
China had warned Kim’s regime it would impose further sanctions if it conducted a sixth nuclear test, Tillerson told Fox News earlier this week. Global Times, a nationalist newspaper affiliated with Communist Party, warned earlier this month that another nuclear test might prompt oil curbs and China banned coal imports from North Korea this year.
“The Security Council is mobilized,” Francois Delattre, France’s ambassador to the UN, said in reaction to news of the North Korean missile launch hours after the Security Council met to discuss the country. “The Security Council has to assume its responsibilities to be very firm in terms of the implementation of existing sanctions, in terms of adopting new sanctions if necessary, and tightening the regime of sanctions.”
Call to all nations to cut diplomatic and economic ties with North Korea was given by Tillerson at the UN on Friday.
Tillerson proposed three ways to pressure North Korea speaking before the United Nations Security Council for the first time as the top U.S. diplomat: UN member states should “fully implement” existing sanctions against North Korea, downgrade or suspend diplomatic ties with the country and increase its financial isolation with new and tighter sanctions.
“North Korea exploits its diplomatic privileges to fund its illicit nuclear and missile technology programs, and constraining its diplomatic activity will cut off the flow of needed resources,” Tillerson said Friday. Normal ties with the country “are simply not acceptable,” he added, urging economic sanctions against nations that do business with North Korea.
(Source:www.bloomberg.com)
