North Korea Fires Ballistic Missile, Challenging Trump

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea
launched a ballistic missile toward the sea
off its eastern coast on Sunday, in what
South Korea called the North’s first attempt
to test President Trump’s policy on the
isolated country.
A projectile believed to be a modified
version of the North’s intermediate-range
ballistic missile Musudan took off at 7:55
a.m. from Banghyon, a town near North
Korea’s northwestern border with China,
and flew 310 miles before falling in the
sea, the South Korean military said.
Earlier, the United States Strategic
Command issued a statement identifying
the missile as a medium- or intermediate-
range system that “did not pose a threat to
North America.”
South Korea condemned the missile
launching, saying that it violated a series of
United Nations Security Council resolutions
that bar North Korea from developing or
testing ballistic missile and nuclear
weapons technologies. It also said the
North had launched the missile to raise
tensions over its weapons programs and to
use it as leverage in dealing with the
Trump administration.
“We see this as part of an attempt by the
North to grab attention by demonstrating
its nuclear and missile capabilities and to
counter the new United States
administration’s strong policy line against
North Korea,” the South Korean military
said in its statement.
The missile launch came as Mr. Trump is
hosting Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo
Abe, on an official visit, but it was unclear
if the test was intended as a political
message.
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Mr. Trump and Mr. Abe hastily arranged a
joint appearance in response. “North
Korea’s most recent missile launch is
absolutely intolerable,” Mr. Abe said,
calling on the country to comply with all
relevant United Nations Security Council
resolutions.
Looking grim, Mr. Trump said nothing
about the missile launch, but pledged to
staunchly back Japan. “I just want
everybody to understand and fully know
that the United States of America stands
behind Japan, its great ally, 100 percent,”
he said. The two leaders are at Mar-a-Lago,
Mr. Trump’s club in Palm Beach, Fla.,
where they are meeting over the weekend.
The United States Strategic Command
statement identified the missile North
Korea launched as “a medium- or
intermediate-range ballistic missile.”
“The missile was tracked over North Korea
and into the Sea of Japan,” the statement
added. “The North American Aerospace
Defense Command determined the missile
launch from North Korea did not pose a
threat to North America.”
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said the
test, the first by the North this year,
demonstrated the “maniacal obsession” of
the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un ,
with developing a nuclear-tipped ballistic
missile.
The test came less than two days after Mr.
Trump said on Friday that defending
against the nuclear and missile threats
from North Korea was a “very, very high
priority.” Mr. Trump made the comment at
a news conference with Mr. Abe at the
White House. In their joint statement, the
two leaders had urged North Korea “to
abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile
programs and not to take any further
provocative actions.”
The test of an intercontinental-range
system would have been especially
provocative because it would mean that
North Korea was trying to develop the
ability to strike the United States. South
Korean officials said they believed that the
North has been using the Musudan, its
intermediate-range missile, to develop and
test some intercontinental ballistic missile,
or ICBM, technologies.
North Korea has deployed and often tested
short-range Scud and midrange Rodong
ballistic missiles that can reach most of
South Korea and Japan, but it has had a
spotty record in test-launching the
Musudan, its only missile with a range long
enough to reach American military bases in
the Pacific, including those on Guam. North
Korea’s last Musudan test ended in failure
in October .
In a New Year’s Day speech, Mr. Kim said
his country had reached a “final stage” in
preparing to conduct its first test of an
ICBM. That drew a Twitter post the next
day from Mr. Trump that said, “It won’t
happen!”
North Korea has since warned that it could
test-launch an ICBM “anytime and
anywhere,” in its first challenge to the new
American president.
The American defense secretary, Jim
Mattis, visited South Korea on his first
official trip abroad and agreed with South
Korea to boost the allies’ joint defense
abilities against North Korea. The two allies
also agreed to push ahead with their plan
to deploy an advanced American missile
defense system known as Thaad in South
Korea by the end of the year, despite a
strong protest from China.
Although North Korea has vowed to develop
the ability to attack the United States with
nuclear warheads and has tested missiles
that can reach throughout the Korean
Peninsula and its vicinity, it has never
tested a long-range missile that could fly
across the Pacific.
It remains unclear how close North Korea
has come to building a reliable ICBM,
although it has boasted of successfully
testing crucial technologies in the past
year, such as long-range missile engines
and heat shields for an ICBM.