{"id":13963,"date":"2017-08-30T13:55:50","date_gmt":"2017-08-30T13:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/08\/30\/north-koreas-kim-jong-un-urges-more-missile-launches-targeting-pacific\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:46:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:46:20","slug":"north-koreas-kim-jong-un-urges-more-missile-launches-targeting-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/flashpoints\/2017\/08\/30\/north-koreas-kim-jong-un-urges-more-missile-launches-targeting-pacific\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea\u2019s Kim Jong Un urges more missile launches targeting Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SEOUL, South Korea \u2014 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for more weapons launches targeting the Pacific Ocean to advance his country\u2019s ability to contain Guam, state media said Wednesday, a day after Pyongyang for the first time flew a ballistic missile designed to carry a nuclear payload over Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday\u2019s aggressive missile launch \u2014 likely the longest ever from North Korea \u2014 over a close U.S. ally sends a clear message of defiance as Washington and Seoul conduct annual military drills. The Korean Central News Agency said the launch was a \u201cmuscle-flexing\u201d countermeasure to the Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint exercises that conclude Thursday. Pyongyang views the drills as invasion rehearsals and often conducts weapons tests and escalates its rhetoric when they are held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The KCNA report said the missile was an intermediate-range Hwasong-12, which the North first successfully tested in May and threatened to fire into waters near Guam earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kim expressed \u201cgreat satisfaction\u201d over the launch that he called a \u201cmeaningful prelude\u201d to containing Guam and said North Korea would continue to watch the U.S. demeanor before it decides future actions, KCNA said. The U.S. territory is home to key U.S. military bases that North Korea finds threatening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kim also said it\u2019s \u201cnecessary to positively push forward the work for putting the strategic force on a modern basis by conducting more ballistic rocket launching drills with the Pacific as a target in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The launch seemed designed to show that North Korea can back up a threat to target Guam, if it chooses to do so, while also establishing a potentially dangerous precedent that could see future missiles flying over Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Korea\u2019s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile traveled around 2,700 kilometers (1,677 miles) and reached a maximum height of 550 kilometers (341 miles) as it flew over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Donald Trump said North Korea had signaled its \u201ccontempt for its neighbors\u201d and that \u201call options are on the table\u201d in terms of a U.S. response. Trump said in his statement that \u201cthreatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime\u2019s isolation in the region and among all nations of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.N. Security Council strongly condemned the launch, which came less than a month after the council imposed its toughest-yet sanctions on North Korea. The statement released after a meeting Tuesday evening in New York doesn\u2019t mention any potential new sanctions but calls for strict implementation of existing ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any new test worries Washington and its allies because it presumably puts North Korea a step closer to its goal of an arsenal of nuclear missiles that can reliably target the United States. Tuesday\u2019s test, however, looks especially aggressive to Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Korea has conducted launches at an unusually fast pace this year \u2014 13 times, Seoul says \u2014 and some analysts believe it could have viable long-range nuclear missiles before the end of Trump\u2019s first term in early 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seoul says that while North Korea has twice before fired rockets it said were carrying satellites over Japan \u2014 in 1998 and 2009 \u2014 it has never before used a ballistic missile, which is unambiguously designed for military strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/atype-video-jwplayer>
North Korean shot across Japan’s bow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

North Korea also chose not to fire its most recent missile at a lofted angle, as it did in previous launches to avoid other countries, and Seoul\u2019s spy service said the North launched from an unusual spot: the international airport in its capital, Pyongyang. The North still claimed on Wednesday that its recent launch \u201chad no impact on the security of the neighboring countries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some outside observers said launching a road-mobile missile from an airport runway could demonstrate the North\u2019s ability to fire its missiles from anywhere in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The launch is also another rebuke to Trump, who suggested last week that his tough approach to North Korea, which included threats to unleash \u201cfire and fury,\u201d meant Kim \u201cis starting to respect us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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South Korean army’s K-9 self-propelled howitzers move during a military exercises in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2017. (Ahn Young-joon\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday\u2019s missile landed nowhere near Guam, but firing a Hwasong-12 so soon after the threat may be a way for North Korea to show it could follow through if it chose to do so. Guam is 3,400 kilometers (2,110 miles) away from North Korea, but South Korea\u2019s military said the North may have fired the missile at a shorter range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guam\u2019s civil defense office said the missile was determined to not be a threat. Residents said they were not worried, for now. Eddie Cruz, 60, said he is concerned that with each missile launch, North Korea is getting better. \u201cThey\u2019re practicing, and that\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m worried about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Korea will no doubt be watching the world\u2019s reaction to see if it can use the same flight path for future launches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Japanese officials made their usual strongly worded condemnations of the launch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will do our utmost to protect people\u2019s lives,\u201d Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said. \u201cThis reckless act of launching a missile that flies over our country is an unprecedented, serious and important threat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t