North Korea apparently failed with an attempted missile launch Tuesday, the latest in a series of setbacks for a ballistic weapons programme that aspires to threaten the USA mainland.
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While not as colourful or overtly supportive as the DPRK Today column, the ruling party’s official Rodong Sinmun editorial said the emergence of Mr Trump is causing anxiety in South Korea because of his comments about potential U.S. troop withdrawal.
The Japanese military was put on alert Monday after detecting signs North Korea would make its first attempt at a launch since three failed attempts to fire a Musudan missile, Yonhap News reported.
A North Korean missile launch likely has failed, the US and South Korean militaries said, the fourth in a series of high-profile failures that somewhat tempers recent worries that the North is pushing quickly toward its goal of a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach America’s mainland.
Tension in Northeast Asia has been high since North Korea conducted a fourth nuclear test in January and followed that with a satellite launch and test launches of various missiles.
Mr Trump told the New York Times in March that South Korea and Japan should pay much more for the United States troops based in their countries – about 28,000 in South Korea and 50,000 in Japan.
“As to why and how it failed, we are in the process of analysing that and can’t give more details at the moment”, Jeon told a press briefing.
Ri Su Yong, chief of the ruling Workers Party of Korea’s International Department, held talks Tuesday with his Chinese counterpart Song Tao, the Chinese Communist Party’s International Department said on its website.
That order was thought to be part of Pyongyang’s reaction to annual South Korea-US military drills that it sees as an invasion rehearsal.
Yonhap, citing an unidentified government source, said the missile exploded at a mobile launch pad as soon as a launch button was pressed.
North Korea has never had a successful launch of the Musudan missile, which theoretically has the range to reach any part of Japan and the U.S. territory of Guam.
A South Korean defense official said Seoul is maintaining ‘combat readiness’.
Kim Jong Un declared North Korea as a nuclear state at the speech during the Party Congress.
“I think they keep firing (Musudans) because they’ve continuously failed” in previous launches, said Lim Eul Chul, a North Korea expert at South Korea’s Kyungnam University.
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Ri was North Korea’s foreign minister until he was named a member of the politburo during the recent Workers’ Party congress.
