N. Korea fails again with new missile test: S. Korea

[Hans Mann]

Seoul (AFP) - North Korea tried but apparently failed in its latest test Wednesday of what was suspected to be a powerful, new medium-range rocket capable of striking US bases in Guam, South Korea's Defence Ministry said.

A ministry official said the North fired an unidentified missile off its east coast shortly before 6:00 am (2100 GMT Tuesday).

"The launch appears to have failed," the official said, without elaborating.

On Tuesday, Japanese and South Korean media quoted military officials saying Pyongyang was readying another launch of its mid-range Musudan ballistic missile.

The North has already made four previous failed attempts this year to test fly the Musudan, which has an estimated range of anywhere between 2,500 and 4,000 kilometres (1,550 to 2,500 miles).

The lower range covers the whole of South Korea and Japan, while the upper range would include US military bases on Guam.

UN resolutions ban North Korea from any use of ballistic missile technology, although it regularly fires short-range missiles into the sea off its east coast.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/n-korea-t...87.html?ref=gs

[Hans Mann]

North Korea fires second missile after first launch fails: South Korea

North Korea launched what appeared to be a second intermediate-range Musudan missile on Wednesday morning after another launch hours earlier failed, South Korea's military said.

It was not immediately clear if the second launch, about two hours after the first, was successful.

The first missile was launched from the east coast city of Wonsan, a South Korean official said, the same area where previous tests of intermediate-range missiles were conducted, possibly using mobile launchers.

The launches were in continued defiance of international warnings and a series of U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban the North from using ballistic missile technology, which Pyongyang rejects as an infringement of its sovereignty.

Japan said after the first launch that it would protest strongly because it violated a United Nations resolution, Kyodo news agency reported, citing a government statement.

Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters after the launch that there had been no effect on Japan's security. The Kyodo news agency separately quoted Nakatani as saying it was a “grave provocative action".

The U.S. military detected a missile launch from North Korea, Navy Commander Dave Benham, a spokesman from the U.S. military's Pacific Command, told Reuters in Washington on Tuesday after the first launch without providing details.

The first missile failed in flight over the sea between the Korean peninsula's east coast and Japan, according to initial indications after the launch, said another U.S. official who also said it was likely to have been another Musudan.

The failure, if confirmed, would be the fifth straight unsuccessful attempt in the past two months to launch a missile that is designed to fly more than 3,000 km (1,800 miles) and could theoretically reach any part of Japan and the U.S. territory of Guam.

Japan put its military on alert on Tuesday for a possible North Korean ballistic missile launch and South Korea's Yonhap News Agency, citing an unidentified government source, said the North was seen to be moving an intermediate-range missile to its east coast.

North Korea is believed to have up to 30 Musudan missiles, according to South Korean media, which officials said were first deployed around 2007, although the North had never attempted to test-fire them until April.

The U.N. Security Council, backed by the North's main diplomatic ally, China, imposed tough new sanctions in March after the isolated state conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and launched a long-range rocket that put an object into space orbit.

North Korea has conducted a series of tests since then that it claimed showed progress in nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missile capabilities, including new rocket engines and simulated atmospheric re-entry.

(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in Washington, Linda Sieg in Tokyo; Writing by Jack Kim; Editing by G Crosse, Toni Reinhold and Paul Tait)

North Korea fires second missile after first launch fails: South Korea | Reuters

[Hans Mann]

North Korea leader says missile gives ability to attack U.S. in Pacific

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un said after supervising the test launch of a "medium long-range strategic ballistic missile" that the country came to possess "the sure capability to attack" U.S. interests in the Pacific, official media reported on Thursday.

South Korean and U.S. military officials have said the North launched what appeared to be two intermediate-range missiles dubbed Musudan on Wednesday. The first of the two was considered a failure.

The second reached a high altitude in the direction of Japan before plunging into the sea about 400 km (250 miles) away, they said.

The test-fire was successful without any impact to the security of neighboring countries, the North's KCNA news agency said, referring to the missile as a "Hwasong-10." Hwasong is Korean for Mars.

"We have the sure capability to attack in an overall and practical way the Americans in the Pacific operation theater," KCNA quoted Kim as saying.

South Korea and the United States condemned the launch as an unacceptable violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Japan's Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said the launch was an indication that North Korea's threat to Japan was intensifying.

The United Nations Security Council, which in March imposed new sanctions on the North following its fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch in February, was due to meet under the request of the United States and Japan.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described North Korea's latest ballistic missile launches as a "brazen and irresponsible act" ahead of a U.N. Security Council meeting on the issue on Wednesday.

North Korea has failed in five attempts to launch the inter-mediate range missiles, which theoretically have the range to reach any part of Japan and the U.S. territory of Guam. South Korea said Washington and Seoul were analyzing whether the sixth missile launch was successful or not.

Japan and South Korea said the missile flew at a height of 1,000 kilometers in a distance of 400 kilometers off its east coast. Experts said North Korea deliberately raised the angle of the launch to avoid hitting any territory of Japan.

North Korea is believed to have up to 30 Musudan missiles, according to South Korean media, which officials said were first deployed around 2007, although the North had never attempted to test-fire them until this year.

(Reporting by Jack Kim and Ju-min Park; Editing by Toni Reinhold)

North Korea leader says missile gives ability to attack U.S. in Pacific | Reuters

[misskit]

North Korea's Missile Tests Show Real Progress



SEOUL—
North Korea's latest missile tests indicate the Kim Jong Un government is continuing to advance its ballistic missile technology, in defiance of United Nations sanctions.

Pyongyang conducted its fifth and sixth test of the intermediate-range Musudan missile on Wednesday from the coastal city of Wonsan. U.S. and South Korean military officials said the first missile failed shortly after it was launched but the second missile flew approximately 400 kilometers before falling into the Sea of Japan or East Sea as it called in South Korea.

The last missile tested did not reach the 3,000-kilometer distance the Musudan is designed for, to potentially reach U.S. military bases in Asia and the Pacific. It apparently also did not demonstrate the atmospheric re-entry capability needed to accurately hit a target. But analysts said North Korea continues to learn from each failure and is making advancements with each new test.

“This is a very important milestone because the previous launches had blown up either very shortly after launch or possibly even right at launch. So this is a real sign of progress,” said Jeffrey Lewis, the director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California.

The multiple missile tests, Lewis said, also indicates that international sanctions have so far not affected North Korea’s ability to acquire the material and technology needed to manufacture these weapons.

According to South Korean media, North Korea is believed to have up to 30 Musudan missiles, which officials said were first deployed around 2007. The first Musudan test occurred in April of this year.

World condemns Kim

In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the U.S. "strongly condemns the provocative actions that are in violation of international law." "The U.S. will do what we have done in the past, work with international allies and others like Russia and China about what pressure can continue to be applied," he said.

French Ambassador Francois Delattre, who is president of the U.N. Security Council this month, said the latest tests are a "clear violation" of Security Council resolutions that ban North Korea from using ballistic missile technology and developing nuclear weapons.

"The North Korean ballistic missile program is a serious threat to regional and international peace and security. Confronted with the threat of proliferation we consider that weakness is not an option. Based on all this, we favor a quick and firm (Security Council) reaction," he said.

The United Nations imposed tough new sanctions on North in March for conducting its fourth nuclear test and launching a long-range rocket. The sanctions include suspending currency transfers and restricting the North’s lucrative mineral trade that had accounted for over half of the country’s $2.5 billion in exports to China alone.

Kim Jong Un has declared his country a nuclear state and has defiantly responded to the international sanctions by conducting multiple missile tests and threatening to proceed with further nuclear testing.

Japan's Self Defense Forces have been on high alert with anti-missile launchers stationed around the country in case the North Korean missiles entered its airspace.

Tokyo said it would issue a strong protest against North Korea for its latest violation of United Nations resolutions.

South Korea called the missile test a clear provocation “against us” and urged Pyongyang to exercise restraint.

“I would like to advise them that it will be good for North Korea to put more effort into peace on the Korean peninsula and their people's livelihood, which the North has been consistently saying," said South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee.

Regional security conference

North Korea’s latest missile test will likely be addressed at a closed-door regional security forum currently underway in Beijing that includes diplomats from North Korea, the U.S. and South Korea. At the conference, North Korean envoy Choe Son Hui is expected to defend her country’s right to develop nuclear weapons to protect itself against the perceived threat from the United States.

Even though China is North Korea’s key ally and trading partner, Beijing opposes Pyongyang’s nuclear program and supports the most recent U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea. However critics said enforcement has been lax as China does not want to destabilize the Kim Jong Un government, and it is unlikely Beijing will support any further measures that would weaken its ally.

“Considering the current situation in Northeast Asia, it is not easy for China to impose sanctions against North Korea as North Korea can be a card for China,” said Korea analyst Woo Su-keun with Donghua University in Shanghai.

Chinese President Xi Jinping recently met with high-level North Korean party officials in Beijing to bolster ties that have been frayed by the North’s nuclear provocations.

Xi has called for restarting international talks to convince the North to give up its nuclear program for economic aid and security guarantees.

Washington and its allies demand that North Korea first halt any further nuclear development before new talks can take place.

North Korea's Missile Tests Show Real Progress

[Hans Mann]

Japan probes suspected North Korean rocket nose cone amid growing missile concerns


An object, suspected to be half of a nose cone from a North Korean rocket launched in February, that washed up on a Japanese beach, is shown to the media at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo, Japan June 23, 2016.
REUTERS/TORU HANAI

Japan on Thursday began to examine the suspected nose cone of a North Korean rocket that washed up on a Japanese beach hoping to glean information on the reclusive state's ballistic missile program a day after it test-launched two more missiles.

The red, white and blue item, believed to be half of the nose cone designed to protect the rocket's payload, was found on a beach in western Japan last Thursday and is suspected to come from a long-range, three-stage rocket fired by North Korea on Feb 7 that flew over Japan's southwest Okinawa island chain.

South Korean authorities recovered the other half.

"We will analyze the materials and the level of technology used," a Japanese Ministry of Defence official said after the part was delivered by truck to the ministry.

The pockmarked 75 kg (165 lb) part, almost two meters wide and over a meter wide, lay on a blanket and blue tarpaulin in a forecourt at the ministry.

The February launch, which North Korea said put a satellite into orbit hundreds of kilometers above Earth, came just weeks after Pyongyang carried out a nuclear bomb test, both in defiance of U.N. resolutions and sanctions.

Concern that North Korea is getting closer to perfecting its ballistic missile technology heightened on Wednesday after it fired what appeared to be two intermediate range ballistic missiles.

While the first was deemed a failure, the second rocket climbed to more than 1,000 km before plunging into the Sea of Japan 400 km down range from the launch sight.

"For Japan, it raises deep concern over our national security," Japan's top military commander, Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano, said on Thursday in Tokyo.

The next step for Pyongyang could be to miniaturize its nuclear bomb technology into a warhead that fits on the missile.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said after supervising Wednesday's launches that the country now had the capability to attack U.S. interests in the Pacific, official media reported.

(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Japan probes suspected North Korean rocket nose cone