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Korea launch of the Hwasong-14 missile on Tuesday that analyst said that had
the potential to reach Alaska.
The Trump administration on Tuesday confirmed North Korea’s claim that it
had launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, and it told Pyongyang that
the United States would use “the full range of capabilities at our disposal
against the growing threat.”
The administration
followed up that warning on Wednesday morning with a joint military exercise in
which United States and South Korean forces fired ballistic missiles in the
waters along the Korean Peninsula’s east coast.
But North Korea reaffirmed
Wednesday that it would never deviate from its determination to bolster its
nuclear and missile abilities as long as the United States’ “hostile policy”
and “nuclear threat” persisted.
The North’s state-run
Korean Central News Agency said its new intercontinental ballistic missile, the
Hwasong-14, was capable of hitting the “heart of the United States” with “large
heavy nuclear warheads.” The launch, according to the agency, successfully
tested the functions of the missile’s two propulsive stages and the warhead’s
ability to endure the intense heat and vibrations as it entered the earth’s
atmosphere.
On Wednesday morning,
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, taunted the United States, saying the
launch was a Fourth of July “gift” to the Trump administration. The Korean
Central News Agency said the country’s citizens were happy with the “great
timing” of their leader’s decision to “hit the arrogant Americans in the nose”
by conducting the first ICBM test to coincide with Independence Day.
“The American
bastards must be quite unhappy after closely watching our strategic decision,”
the news agency quoted Mr. Kim as saying after watching the missile test on
Tuesday. “I guess they are not too happy with the gift package we sent them for
the occasion of their Independence Day. We should often send them gift packages
so they won’t be too bored.”
Mr. Kim made those
remarks “with a guffaw,” the news agency said.
The joint missile
exercise by the United States and South Korea was first proposed by the South
Korean president, Moon Jae-in, and endorsed by President Trump, Mr. Moon’s
office said.
Acting on an American
request, the United Nations Security Council, which has repeatedly penalized
North Korea over its violations of a ban on nuclear and missile testing, will
meet in an emergency session on Wednesday afternoon.
The United Nations
secretary general, António Guterres, sharply criticized the North Korean
launch. “This action is yet another brazen violation of Security Council
resolutions and constitutes a dangerous escalation of the situation,” he said
in a statement. Mr. Guterres called on North Korea to “cease further
provocative actions and comply fully with its international obligations.”
The North Korean
missile departed the Banghyon airfield in the northwestern town of Kusong and
flew 578 miles before landing in the sea between North Korea and Japan, the
South Korean military said in a statement. The American military said it
remained aloft for 37 minutes.
While the North has
made significant progress in its weapons programs, experts believe it
cannot make nuclear warheads small enough to be mounted on ICBMs.
Still, American policy makers have long seen just the development of an ICBM as
a critical threshold the North should not be allowed to cross.
The missile test adds
a volatile new element to the Trump administration’s efforts to curb North
Korea’s nuclear ambitions, which have included naval drills off the Korean
Peninsula and pressure on China, Pyongyang’s longtime ally. In a blunt phone
call on Sunday, President Trump warned President Xi Jinping of China that the
United States was prepared to act alone against North Korea.
If the missile took
37 minutes to fly 578 miles, that would mean that it had a highly lofted
trajectory, probably reaching an altitude of more than 1,700 miles, said David
Wright, co-director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned
Scientists.
Such a missile would
have a maximum range of roughly 4,160 miles, or 6,700 kilometers, on a standard
trajectory, he said. North Korea said the missile flew for 39 minutes.
“That range would not
be enough to reach the lower 48 states or the large islands of Hawaii, but
would allow it to reach all of Alaska,” Mr. Wright wrote in a blog post.
But analysts also
cautioned that although they had been impressed by the rapid and steady
progress in the North’s missile programs, the long flight time itself did not
suggest that North Korea had mastered the complex technologies needed to build
a reliable nuclear-tipped ICBM, like the know-how to separate the nuclear
warhead and guide it to its target.
By lofting some of
its recent missiles to higher altitudes and letting them crash toward the earth
at greater speeds, North Korea has claimed that it tested its “re-entry”
technology, which can protect a nuclear warhead from intense heat and
vibrations as it crashes through the atmosphere.
North Korea announced
the latest missile launch in a broadcast on state television after a series of
patriotic music videos. “As a proud nuclear power that possesses not
only nuclear weapons but also the most powerful ICBM that can target
any part of the world, North Korea will root out the United States’ threat and
blackmail of nuclear war and solidly defend the peace and stability of the Korean
Peninsula and the region,” its statement said.
North Korea called
the test “a momentous event in the history of the country.”
Before the
announcement, Mr. Trump had noted the missile launch on Twitter, suggesting
that it was time for China to act decisively against the North and “end this
nonsense once and for all.” On Tuesday, Chinese officials criticized the
missile test, saying it violated United Nations rules.
Vladimir V. Putin of
Russia said both had agreed to advance a joint proposal to settle the Korea
crisis by simultaneously freezing the North’s nuclear and missile programs and
the joint military drills by the United States and South Korea.
Russia which, like
China, borders North Korea has repeatedly called for a diplomatic solution.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned that the launch would give “more
arguments to those who seek pretexts for new escalation of tensions,” according
to the Interfax news agency.
Mr. Trump is to meet
this week with both Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi at a Group of 20 meeting in Germany,
and Cheng Xiaohe, an associate professor of international relations at Renmin
University in Beijing, said the missile test would force them to find some kind
of common ground on North Korea. He did not specify what that might be, but he
suggested that it would now be harder for Mr. Xi to stand by Pyongyang.
“Certainly the test
will change the game,” Professor Cheng said. “The business-as-usual situation
is over.”
Other analysts said
the launch would put Mr. Trump’s administration in a precarious position, given
that it had indicated that such a missile, capable of reaching parts of the
United States, was a critical threshold. In January, Mr. Trump declared on
Twitter, “It won’t happen” the message set off a cascade of speculation on what
exactly he meant.
“The important thing
is that Donald Trump doesn’t let himself be backed into a corner and
that he understands that there are long-term options to contain, constrain and
deter the regime,” said Adam Mount, a senior fellow at the Center for American
Progress in Washington.
The United States had
hoped North Korea would stop short of developing a long-range missile that
could reach its shores, Mr. Mount said. Now, he said, the United States and its
allies will have to compromise on any expectation that North Korea will ever
give up its nuclear program, he added.
“Talks can’t proceed
from the presumption of denuclearization,” he said. “And we can’t coerce North
Korea back to the negotiating table to prevent them from crossing a threshold
they have already crossed.”
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