Trump cautions North Korea; after missile flies over Japan, ‘all options’ on table, he says

Koro Bessho, Japan’s ambassador to the United Nations, said Tuesday in New York that “something serious has to happen” with North Korea.
Koro Bessho, Japan’s ambassador to the United Nations, said Tuesday in New York that “something serious has to happen” with North Korea.

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump sought Tuesday to reassert an American military threat against North Korea, saying that "all options are on the table" in response to its launch of a nuclear-capable midrange missile over U.S. ally Japan.

In a statement, Trump said North Korea's missile launch "signaled its contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior."

"Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime's isolation in the region and among all nations of the world," Trump said. "All options are on the table."

Trump later told reporters "we'll see" when asked what he would do. Trump, accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, was departing the White House to survey storm damage in southeast Texas.

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The missile, fired early Tuesday, flew over Japan and splashed into the northern Pacific Ocean, officials said, as Washington and South Korea were conducting war games nearby.

Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said today that it was a Hwasong-12 intermediate range missile that the North first successfully tested in May and threatened earlier this month to fire into waters near Guam, a U.S. territory. Leader Kim Jong Un was present for the launch, the agency reported.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile traveled about 1,677 miles and reached a maximum height of 341 miles as it flew over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. The missile landed about 745 miles east of Hokkaido, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in ordered a show of force in response, with four F-15K jet fighters conducting bomb-dropping drills.

Kim expressed satisfaction over what the North described as successful testing and said the country will continue to watch "U.S. demeanors" before it decides on future actions. He called the launch a "meaningful prelude" to containing Guam, which is home to key U.S. military bases that North Korea finds threatening, and said the country needs to conduct more missile launches into the Pacific to advance the capabilities of its strategic force, the Korean Central News Agency reported.

The news agency 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 Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters in Tokyo that "a missile passing over Japan is an unprecedented, grave and serious threat." Abe said he spoke with Trump for 40 minutes, and they agreed to increase pressure on North Korea. He also called for China and Russia to take action.

The White House said in a statement that Trump and Abe agreed that North Korea poses "a grave and growing direct threat" to the U.S., Japan, South Korea and countries around the world.

Later Tuesday, the United Nations Security Council strongly condemned North Korea's actions, calling them "outrageous." The council's statement doesn't discuss any potential new sanctions but calls for the strict implementation of existing ones.

Within minutes of the launch, Japanese living beneath the missile's flight path received a beeping alert on their cellphones at 6:02 a.m., just four minutes after the projectile was launched, rousing some from sleep. Speakers broadcast an alert saying "missile is passing, missile is passing."

At the same time the phone alert was sent, the public broadcaster NHK cut into its early morning newscast with a black screen warning people that a missile was approaching and they should take cover.

In Sapporo, the capital city of Hokkaido, sirens went off, telling residents to seek shelter.

And at Tokyo Station, one of the world's busiest train terminals, an announcement on platform loudspeakers advised commuters: "Right now a North Korean missile is flying over Japan. It's very dangerous. Please seek cover inside a train or in a waiting room."

Japan opted not to intercept the missile because there was no risk of it falling into the nation's territory or territorial waters, the prime minister said.

"Japan has been fully aware of the movement of the missile since immediately after its launch," Abe said.

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.

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 Pyongyang, the capital.

Some analysts 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.

While the tone of Trump's Tuesday statement was tough, it was far less bombastic than his tweets and threats earlier this month. Three weeks ago, he warned of "fire and fury" if North Korea persisted in threatening the United States. A military solution, he added days later, was "locked and loaded."

But last week, the Trump administration adopted a more conciliatory tone. It praised the North for not launching any missiles for nearly a month and suggested its newfound restraint could point the way toward negotiations. The hiatus ended Friday when the North tested three short-range missiles off its eastern coast.

The president has repeatedly declined to discuss in any detail the potential for a pre-emptive strike on the North, telling reporters that any such deliberations must be kept private to avoid ceding any leverage to Pyongyang.

2 FOREIGN MINISTERS: STOP IT

Elsewhere, the foreign ministers of Russia and the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday urged North Korea to stop its provocations and obey United Nations resolutions.

Speaking in Abu Dhabi, the two ministers offered a forceful warning for Pyongyang, with United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan calling for North Korea to stop its "provocations."

But neither minister mentioned their countries' diplomatic and commercial ties to North Korea, with the United Arab Emirates in particular home to thousands of its workers whose wages help Pyongyang avoid international sanctions.

A 2015 U.N. report suggested that the more than 50,000 North Koreans working overseas earned Pyongyang between $1.2 billion and $2.3 billion a year. Other estimates put earnings in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The major markets for North Korean workers are China and Russia, but the Persian Gulf also hosts thousands. In the United Arab Emirates, Pyongyang also has at lease three restaurants it uses to earn hard currency while about 1,500 North Koreans work in the country, said two officials familiar with the business dealings, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who is visiting the United Arab Emirates as part of a Gulf Arab nation tour regarding the ongoing diplomatic crisis involving Qatar, stressed that North Korea should follow the U.N. resolutions.

"Regarding North Korea and the missile tests it is conducting, we stick to the resolutions of the U.N. Security Council and we insist on the fact that our North Korean neighbors should fully respect those resolutions," Lavrov said.

Abdullah went further.

"The situation cannot continue to escalate between North Korea on one side and Japan and South Korea on the other," he said. "North Korea cannot continue to disregard the U.N. Security Council resolutions and the U.N.'s call to stop its provocations."

Information for this article was contributed by Foster Klug, Kim Tong-Hyung, Darlene Superville, Matthew Pennington, Bradley Klapper, Jon Gambell and Yuri Kageyama of The Associated Press; by Motoko Rich of The New York Times; by Andy Sharp, David Tweed and Toluse Olorunnipa of Bloomberg News; and by staff members of The Japan News.

photo

AP/Korean Central News Agency

In this photo released early today by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (center) celebrates the test launch of a missile with military officials in Pyongyang, North Korea.

photo

AP/AHN YOUNG-JOON

A crowd prays Tuesday evening during a religious service for peace near the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea.

A Section on 08/30/2017

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