President Donald Trump said "we will take care of it" after North Korea launched yet another intercontinental ballistic missile Tuesday, defying sanctions and world condemnation.
"It is a situation we will handle," the president told reporters at the White House, without being specific. But he did say the U.S. approach toward North Korea has not changed.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said this missile flew longer and higher than any previous North Korean test launch. He called it part of North Korea's efforts to build missiles that can "threaten everywhere in the world." Mattis said North Korea is a danger to world peace.
The Pentagon's initial assessment is that North Korea fired the ICBM from Sang Ni, north of Pyongyang. It flew about 1,000 kilometers before dropping in the Sea of Japan, in Japan's exclusive economic zone, which is sovereign Japanese territory.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has asked for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council and vowed to protect the Japanese people.
"We can never accept this violence and have strongly protested to North Korea," Abe told reporters.
Trump is expected to discuss the matter with Japan's prime minister soon.
Britain's U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft called the launch "another reckless act by a regime that is more intent on building up its ballistic missile and nuclear capability than it is on looking after its own people."
This was the first North Korean missile test since September and the first since the U.S. put the North back on its list of state sponsors of terrorism. A pause in missile tests after a spate of them earlier this year led some analysts to speculate that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was holding out a sliver of goodwill toward the U.S.
Some experts believe he had decided to freeze test flights at least until after February's Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
"I am surprised, but not shocked when it comes to this move," Harry Kazianis from Center for the National Interest told VOA on Tuesday. "North Korea, who did test two missiles in the fourth quarter last year, will have to continue to test its missile capabilities for years to come if it wants a nuclear deterrent that can hit the U.S. homeland."
The latest North Korean launch comes as the U.S. and South Korea are preparing a five-day joint exercise called Vigilant Ace from December 4 to 8, with thousands of military personnel and more than 230 aircraft, including six F-22 Raptor fighter jets deployed to South Korea for the first time.
Pyongyang routinely condemns such military drills using belligerent language and military threats.
VOA's Nike Ching, Carla Babb, Jeff Seldin, Steve Herman, Daniel Schearf and Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.
Read More 'We Will Take Care of It,' Trump Says After N. Korea Fires Another Missile : http://ift.tt/2zNdkT9
No comments:
Post a Comment