N Korea fires missile days after new South leader pledges talks

Seoul, May 14 

North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Sunday in defiance of calls to rein in its weapons programme, days after a new leader in its old rival South Korea came to power pledging to engage it in dialogue.

The US Pacific Command said it was assessing the type of missile but it was “not consistent with an intercontinental ballistic missile”. Japanese Defence Minister Tomomi Inada said the missile could be of a new type.

The missile flew 700 km and reached an altitude of more than 2,000 km, according to officials in South Korea and Japan, further and higher than an intermediate-range missile North Korea successfully tested in February from the same region of Kusong, northwest of its capital, Pyongyang.

North Korea is widely believed to be developing an intercontinental missile tipped with a nuclear weapon that is capable of reaching the US. US President Donald Trump has vowed not to let that happen.  Experts said the altitude the missile tested on Sunday reached meant it was launched at a high trajectory, which would limit the lateral distance it travelled. But if it was fired at a standard trajectory, it would have a range of at least 4,000 km experts said. — Reuters

US for tough sanctions 

The White House on Sunday described a missile test by North Korea as a provocative behaviour and called for stronger sanctions. “Let this latest provocation serve as a call for all nations to implement far stronger sanctions against North Korea,” Press Secretary Sean Spicer said.

A ‘threat to global peace’ 

North Korea’s test-firing of a ballistic missile constitutes a “threat to international peace and security” as Pyongyang ratchets up tensions in the region, an EU spokesperson said. “This and previous launches will further aggravate tensions in the region,” he said.