Tuesday’s launch of a Hwasong-12 intermediate range missile that flew over Hokkaido on Tuesday. Photo: AP
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https://scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2108875/kim-jong-un-pledges-launch-more-north-korean-missiles-pacific East Asia
Kim Jong-un pledges to launch more North Korean missiles into Pacific, to ‘contain’ US territory of Guam
North Korean leader says he watched launch of missile that flew over Hokkaido with ‘great satisfaction’, calling it a ‘prelude’
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his generals laugh after watching the launch of a ballistic missile on Tuesday that flew over Japan. The launch reportedly took place from Pyongyang’s airport. Photo: Reuters
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for more weapons tests targeting the Pacific Ocean, Pyongyang announced Wednesday, a day after his nation flew a ballistic missile designed to carry a nuclear payload over Japan.
Tuesday’s aggressive missile launch – likely the longest ever from North Korea – over the territory of a close US ally sends a clear message of defiance as Washington and Seoul conduct war games nearby.
Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said it was a Hwasong-12 intermediate range missile that the North first successfully tested in May and threatened to fire into waters near Guam earlier this month.
Kim expressed “great satisfaction” after watching the launch that he called a “meaningful prelude” to containing Guam, which is home to key US military bases that North Korea finds threatening, the agency said. He also said the country will continue to watch “US demeanours” before it decides on future actions.
Kim also said it was “necessary 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.”
The launch seemed designed to show that North Korea can back up a threat to target the US territory of Guam, if it chooses to do so, while also establishing a potentially dangerous precedent that could see future missiles flying over Japan.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile travelled around 2,700km and reached a maximum height of 550km as it flew over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
The KCNA said the flight test was a countermeasure to the Ulchi-Freedom Guardian joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea that run through Thursday. Pyongyang views the annual war games between the allies as invasion rehearsals.
In a statement, US President Donald Trump said North Korea had signalled its “contempt for its neighbours” and that “all options are on the table” in terms of a US response. But he did not repeat his threat earlier this month to respond with “fire and fury” if North Korea targeted Guam.
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’s test, however, looks especially aggressive to Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.
North Korea has conducted launches at an unusually fast pace this year – 13 times, Seoul says – and some analysts believe it could have viable long-range nuclear missiles before the end of Trump’s first term in early 2021. 
A man watches a TV screen showing an image of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, at the Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea. Photo: AP
Seoul says that while North Korea has twice before fired rockets it said were carrying satellites over Japan – in 1998 and 2009 – it has never before used a ballistic missile, which is unambiguously designed for military strikes.
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’s spy service said the North launched from an unusual spot: the international airport in its capital, Pyongyang.
Some outside observers said launching a road-mobile missile from an airport runway could demonstrate the North’s ability to fire its missiles from anywhere in the country.
The launch is also another rebuke to Trump, who suggested last week that his tough approach to North Korea, which included the “fire and fury” threat, meant Kim “is starting to respect us.”
Tuesday’s 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 3,400km from North Korea.
North Korea will no doubt be watching the world’s reaction to see if it can use Tuesday’s flight over Japan as a precedent for future launches.
Trump said in his statement that “threatening and destabilising actions only increase the North Korean regime’s isolation in the region and among all nations of the world” and that “all options are on the table.”
Japanese officials made their usual strongly worded condemnations of the launch.
“We will do our utmost to protect people’s lives,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said. “This reckless act of launching a missile that flies over our country is an unprecedented, serious and important threat.”
The launch was also condemned by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and a number of other countries. On Wednesday the UN Security Council unanimously denounced North Korea’s latest missile test, demanding that Pyongyang halt the programme.