‘Nobody’s happy’ about N. Korea missile launch

International Live: US President Donald Trump said that “nobody’s happy” after North Korea raised the pressure over the future of their deadlocked nuclear negotiations by launching two short-range missiles.

Trump’s second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi in February broke up without an agreement or even a joint statement as the two failed to reach a deal on what Pyongyang would be willing to give up in exchange for relief from sanctions imposed over its banned nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.

It was Pyongyang’s second such move in less than a week, after having not launched a missile since November 2017, shortly before a rapid diplomatic thaw eased high tensions on the peninsula and paved the way for the historic first Kim-Trump summit in Singapore last June.

North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the mouthpiece of the ruling party, devoted its entire front page and half of page two to the launch on Friday, with 16 pictures, the main one of Kim watching the launch from a camouflaged shelter.

It was a “long-range strike” drill, the official Korean Central News Agency said, without specifying what kind of weapon was fired and avoiding the words missile, rocket or projectile.

“The genuine peace and security of the country are guaranteed only by the strong physical force capable of defending its sovereignty,” it cited him as saying. The pictures of the two launches released by the North appeared similar, and experts said at least one short-range ballistic missile was involved on Saturday.

A report on the respected 38 North website said debris left by the launch suggested it was a “direct import” of a Russian-produced Iskander a single-stage, solid-fuel missile.

If North Korea had imported Iskanders from Russia, the report added, “it has an existing capacity to deliver warheads to targets in South Korea with great precision”. Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington had all refrained from explicitly calling Saturday’s launch a missile the South used the term “projectile” which could jeopardise the ongoing diplomacy if it violated UN Security Council resolutions against ballistic technology as well as Kim’s announcement of an end to long-range missile tests.

“It appears the North is highly displeased that the Hanoi summit ended without agreement,” he added, but warned that the launch “could make negotiations more difficult”.

A summit between Moon and Kim a year ago was instrumental in lowering the temperature, but since the Hanoi summit the North has blamed Seoul for siding with Washington, leaving inter-Korean relations in limbo.

 

Dhaka, 10 May (campuslive24.com)//MIH

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