President Donald Trump says he will be talking ‘soon’ abut North Korea’s latest provocative ballistic missile launch, its first such move since September 15.
‘We’ll be talking about it,’ Trump said at the U.S. Capitol after meeting with Republican senators about spending and tax-cut bills. ‘We’ll be talking about it very soon.’
The White House said the president will talk to reporters at 3:00 p.m., and canceled the regular daily press briefing.
The White House also said Trump was notified immediately that the missile was fired, suggesting that the news interrupted his Capitol Hill meeting.
‘@POTUS was briefed, while missile was still in the air, on the situation in North Korea,’ press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a tweet.
President Trump said he will talk about Tuesday’s North Korean missile launch ‘soon’
North Korea has fired another ballistic missile, the US military has confirmed today
North Korea has already carried out a record 15 missile tests this year which showed it has developed an ICBM which can likely strike most of mainland America
The missile was launched eastward from Pyongsong in North Korea’s South Pyongan Province in the middle of the night local time, according to a statement issued by the South Korean Military’s joint chiefs of staff.
It appears to have landed in the Sea of Japan, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Reuters confirmed the news with U.S. government officials.
South Korea and the U.S. worked together to determine the missile’s trajectory and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered an emergency cabinet meeting.
Officials in Seoul said a rocket-tracking radar was turned on at a missile base in the North of the region yesterday followed by a large amount of radio chatter, the Yonhap news agency reported.
It comes as South Korean reunification minister Cho Myoung-gyon warned that Kim Jong Un may develop a viable long-range nuclear weapon within a year (file image)
Tokyo and Washington were also placed on alert after radio signals were picked up, with one Japanese official telling the Kyodo news agency that a test could take place ‘within the next few days.’
Cho Myoung-gyon, South Korea’s unification minister, confirmed the activity at an event in Seoul today as he warned that Kim Jong Un may complete his nuclear programme much sooner than previously thought.
Cho said there had been ‘noteworthy activity in the North recently’, but said the world would have to ‘wait and see whether it leads to an actual missile test’.
Speaking about Kim’s efforts to develop a viable long-range nuclear weapon, he added: ‘Experts think North Korea will take two to three more years but they are developing their nuclear capabilities faster than expected.
‘We cannot rule out the possibility Pyongyang may declare the completion of their nuclear program in a year.’
Japan said the latest signals from North Korea might have come to nothing, saying they could have been from military exercises which the North routinely carries out each winter.
Cho said the frequency of North Korean activity tends to decline noticeably during the winter.
‘If it launched a provocation, North Korea has to put its military on alert, but most of its troops are needed for manual labour for preparation of winter,’ he said.
Other reasons behind the lull could be that Pyongyang simply needs more time to advance its missile programme such as perfecting its re-entry technology, Cho said, or the North Korean leader could be focusing on boosting the economy.
Kim has already carried out a record 15 missile tests this year, including two which were fired over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
The tests also confirmed that North Korea has developed a functioning ICBM, a key step toward creating a nuke that can strike mainland America.
News of another launch would come as a blow to North Korea’s opponents who had hoped that increased sanctions were at least slowing the country’s progress.
After a flurry of missile tests over the summer, Kim last fired a weapon on September 15, despite widely-anticipated launches in October around Labor Day in the US and the Chinese 19th Party Congress.