The Nation Newspaper

Tag: North Korea missile test

  • Britain summons North Korean ambassador over missile test

    The British Foreign Office said it has summoned the North Korean ambassador over Wednesday’s ballistic missile test.

    North Korea said it has successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile in a “breakthrough” that put the United States mainland within range of its nuclear weapons.

    “I summoned the North Korean Ambassador to the Foreign Office to make clear to him our condemnation of this latest ballistic missile test,” Reuters quoted the Minister for Asia and Pacific, Mark Field, as saying in a statement.

    “North Korea claims it wants to bring security and prosperity to its people. But its actions are creating only insecurity and deepening its isolation.”

    Britain is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

    The latest test was the highest and longest any North Korean missile had flown, and it landed in the sea near Japan.

    U.S President, Donald Trump, who has vowed to halt North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes, spoke with Chinese President, Xi Jinping, on Wednesday and urged Beijing to rein in its ally North Korea.

    North Korea said the new missile reached an altitude of about 4,475 km (2,780 miles) – more than 10 times the height of the International Space Station – and flew 950 km (590 miles) during its 53-minute flight.

     

     

  • North Korea fires three missiles into sea

    North Korea fires three missiles into sea

    North Korea has fired three short-range ballistic missiles, the United States military said on Saturday.

    They were launched from a site in the North Korean province of Gangwon and flew for about 250km (150 miles), officials in South Korea said.

    Since firing an intercontinental ballistic weapon last month, Pyongyang has threatened to aim missiles at the U.S Pacific territory of Guam, the BBC reports.

    But this latest test did not threaten the U.S or Guam, the U.S military said.

    North Korean missile tests often come in response to South Korean military exercises involving the U.S.

    Thousands of U.S and South Korean troops are currently taking part in joint military drills, which are mainly largely computer-simulated exercises.

    The projectiles were launched at 06:49 on Saturday (21:49 GMT Friday), South Korea’s defence ministry said.

    The U.S military initially reported that two of the missiles had failed but, according to its later assessment, one appears to have blown up almost immediately while two flew about 250km (155 miles) in a north-easterly direction.

    The launches were spread over a period of 30 minutes, an official said.

     

  • North Korea to continue missile test

    North Korea will continue to test missiles, a senior official has said in Pyongyang, despite international condemnation and growing military tensions with the United States.

    “We’ll be conducting more missile tests on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis,” Vice Foreign Minister, Han Song-ryol, told the BBC.

    He said that an “all-out war” would result if the U.S took military action.

    Earlier, U.S Vice-President, Mike Pence, warned North Korea not to test the U.S.

    He said his country’s “era of strategic patience” with North Korea was over.

    Mr. Pence arrived in Seoul on Sunday hours after North Korea carried out a failed missile launch.

    Tensions have been escalating on the peninsula, with heated rhetoric from both North Korea and the U.S.

    Mr. Han told the BBC: “If the U.S is planning a military attack against us, we will react with a nuclear pre-emptive strike by our own style and method.”

    North Korea has accelerated its nuclear and missile tests in recent years, despite international condemnation and United Nations sanctions.

     

  • North Korea missile test fails

    North Korea has test-fired a ballistic missile from a submarine but it failed in its initial flight stage, South Korea’s military said.

    It said the missile was launched in waters east of the Korean peninsula – the latest in a recent series of tests.

    It comes less than three months after a previous attempt to launch a missile from a submarine failed, the BBC reports.

    North Korea, believed to be developing nuclear weapons, is banned by the United Nations from any use of ballistic missiles.

    “The SLBM (submarine-launched ballistic missile) was ejected from the submarine normally, but is estimated the initial flight was unsuccessful,” the BBC quoted the South Korean military as saying in a statement.

    “Our military strongly denounces such provocative acts by North Korea,” it added.

    The missile had been launched at about 11:30 local time (02:30 GMT) off North Korea’s port of Sinpo.

    The United States and South Korea on Friday agreed to deploy a missile defence system to counter threats from Pyongyang.

    It remains unclear exactly where the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system will be sited and who will have final control.