North Korean missile test fails hours after UN meeting on nuclear weapons

A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch on Saturday, South Korea and the United States said, the third test-fire flop just this month but a clear message of defiance as a US supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters.

North Korean missile test fails hours after UN meeting on nuclear weapons

A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch on Saturday, South Korea and the United States said, the third test-fire flop just this month but a clear message of defiance as a US supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters.

North Korean ballistic missile tests are banned by the United Nations because they are seen as part of the North's push for a nuclear-tipped missile that can strike the US mainland.

The latest test came as US officials pivoted from a hard line to diplomacy at the UN in an effort to address what may be Washington's most pressing foreign policy challenge.

President Donald Trump said on Twitter, "North Korea disrespected the wishes of China & its highly respected President when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad!"

He did not answer reporters' questions about the missile launch upon returning to the White House from a day trip to Atlanta.

North Korea did not immediately comment on the launch.

The timing of the North's test was striking: Only hours earlier the UN Security Council held a ministerial meeting on Pyongyang's escalating weapons programme. North Korean officials boycotted the meeting, which was chaired by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

South Korea's joint chiefs of staff said in a statement that the missile flew for several minutes and reached a maximum height of 71km (44 miles) before it apparently failed.

It did not immediately provide an estimate on how far the missile flew, but a US official said it was likely a medium-range KN-17 ballistic missile. It broke up a couple minutes after the launch.

Japan's chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga, speaking after a meeting of Japan's National Security Council, said the missile is believed to have travelled about 50km (30 miles) and fallen on an inland part of North Korea.

South Korea's foreign ministry denounced the launch as an "obvious" violation of United Nations resolutions and the latest display of North Korea's "belligerence and recklessness".

"We sternly warn that the North Korean government will continue to face a variety of strong punitive measures issued by the UN Security Council and others if it continues to reject denuclearisation and play with fire in front of the world," the ministry said.

Analysts say the KN-17 is a new Scud-type missile developed by North Korea. The North fired the same type of missile April 16, just a day after a massive military parade where it showed off its expanding missile arsenal, but US officials called that launch a failure.

Some analysts say a missile the North test fired April 5, which US officials identified as a Scud variant, also might have been a KN-17. US officials said that missile spun out of control and crashed into the sea.

The two earlier launches were conducted from an eastern coastal area, but the missile on Saturday was fired in the west, from an area near Pukchang, just north of the capital, Pyongyang.

Saturday's launch comes at a point of particularly high tension. Mr Trump has sent a nuclear-powered submarine and the USS Carl Vinson aircraft supercarrier to Korean waters, and North Korea this week conducted large-scale, live-fire exercises on its eastern coast.

The US and South Korea also started installing a missile defence system that is supposed to be partially operational within days.

On Friday, the United States and China offered starkly different strategies for addressing North Korea's escalating nuclear threat as Mr Tillerson demanded full enforcement of economic sanctions on Pyongyang and urged new penalties.

Stepping back from suggestions of US military action, he even offered aid to North Korea if it ends its nuclear weapons programme.

The range of Mr Tillerson's suggestions, which over a span of 24 hours also included restarting negotiations, reflected America's failure to halt North Korea's nuclear advances despite decades of US-led sanctions, military threats and stop-and-go rounds of diplomatic engagement.

As the North approaches the capability to hit the US mainland with a nuclear-tipped missile, the Trump administration feels it is running out of time.

Chairing a ministerial meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday, Mr Tillerson declared that "failing to act now on the most pressing security issue in the world may bring catastrophic consequences".

His ideas included a ban on North Korean coal imports and preventing its overseas guest labourers, a critical source of government revenue, from sending money home.

And he warned of unilateral US moves against international firms conducting banned business with Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programmes, which could ensnare banks in China, the North's primary trade partner.

AP

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