President Obama has said sanctions need to be tightened against North Korea after the communist state launched three more ballistic missiles on Monday.
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Speaking after a meeting in Laos with South Korean counterpart, Park Geun-hye, Obama said the firing of the missiles, when leaders of the Group of 20 major economies were at a summit in China, demonstrated the threat North Korea posed.
Kim Jong Un labelled North Korea’s latest missile tests “perfect”, state media said Tuesday, as he called for the isolated state to build up its nuclear arsenal.
Pressure on Pyongyang is expected to intensify later Tuesday when the 15-member UN Security Council convenes in NY to consider a response to the latest in a series of tests. Wearing a white top, and thick-rimmed glasses, Kim was shown using binoculars to watch the launch. Terming 2016 as a “historic year”, Kim reportedly said the country should continue its nuclear mission.
Recent tests show “may be a signal that Kim Jong Un is seeking to diversify his deterrents in a way to create some strategic ambiguity”, says Alex Neill, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies Asia.
They landed in the Sea of Japan 125 to 155 miles west of Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s main islands, the Japanese Defense Ministry said.
In their joint press conference, Obama also defended the decision to deploy Thaad in the South, stressing that it is a pure defense measure against the North’s threats.
“The most obvious difference from the last test is the change in warhead”, Hanham said.
Lewis pointed to another way North Korea can potentially bypass THAAD’s defenses: via a submarine-launched ballistic missile.
That flew 500 kilometres towards Japan, far exceeding the range of the country’s previous sub-launched missiles.
The launch was widely condemned by the USA and other major powers, but analysts saw it as a clear step forward for North Korea’s nuclear strike ambitions.
North Korea has also ramped up missile tests as negotiations between South Korea and the U.S. to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD) have progressed.
“I think North Korea tried to send a message that ‘you may not expect peace on the Korean peninsula while ignoring us, and we will initiate any peace on the Korean peninsula, ‘” said North Korean defector and analyst Ahn Chan-il, with the World Institute for North Korean studies.
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But he added that Pyongyang’s current behaviour made that impossible.
