South Korean officials indicate that North Korea just test-fired a ballistic missile, the first such test by the rogue nation since Donald Trump was inaugurated.
“The South Korean government and the international community are working together to take punitive actions appropriate for this launch,” acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn said.Trump, when asked by reporters about the missile launch, declined to comment. A White House spokesman said Trump was briefed on the launch.Another source within the South Korean Defense Ministry told CNN that North Korea launched a projectile from North Pyongan Province. The missile traveled 500 kilometers (310 miles) and landed in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, sources said.The launch involved an intermediate-range ballistic missile, a senior US official told CNN.A State Department official said, “We are aware of reports and monitoring the situation carefully.”South Korean security officials were holding an emergency meeting Sunday morning.
The test was accompanied by threats that North Korea “would pour further misery on the United States.” Meanwhile, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that it was an “act of provocation,” happening right after the planned meeting between Japan’s president and President Trump.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency says that the Japanese government confirmed that the missile fell in seas between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the projectile was fired from an area in the country’s western region around Banghyon, North Pyongan Province, which is where South Korean officials have said the country test launched its powerful midrange missile Musudan on Oct. 15 and 20.The South Korean military called it North Korea’s “show of force” against the hard-line stance of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump on Pyongyang, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe engaged in golf diplomacy at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida.
Abe had joked at a joint press conference at the White House on Friday that he was looking forward to playing golf with Trump, even though, he claimed, he’s not nearly as good on the links.He said he planned to use the time to discuss the future of the world, the Pacific region and U.S.-Japanese relations.In a sign of unity, neither Japanese nor White House officials volunteered the pair’s final score.
Kim Jong-un just gave these two world leaders another topic to discuss this weekend.
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