North Korea staged a brazen show of defiance against the Trump administration’s attempts to curb its nuclear ambitions, testing a missile Sunday that it said could reach US territory.
While the northeast Asian country is given to wild hyperbole, analysts said the launch is the country’s most successful to date and marks a significant step in its quest to build a nuclear-armed ballistic missile that could reach the continental US. They add that the development could raise tensions between Washington and Beijing — North Korea’s major protector — and shows just how hard it is to curtail Pyongyang.
The missile test came despite new South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s warm overtures to North Korea and as China was holding an international trade summit. Pyongyang also launched its missile amid continuing speculation that President Donald Trump may take military action to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them.
“In a way, it’s an extended middle finger to Trump, ” said Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, “and to the newly elected Moon Jae-in and to China.” Klingner also noted the missile landed very near Russia and said that the display of disrespect might have been meant to include President Vladimir Putin as well.
“If it was a signal, it could have been directed at any of the neighbors, ” Klingner said, noting that it represented “yet another violation of UN resolutions.”
The Trump administration has made North Korea a central focus in recent weeks, calling for new economic sanctions on Pyongyang, holding a special UN meeting about the threat it poses, and staging shows of military force in the region.
While experts say Pyongyang is still some time away from actually being able to strike the US mainland, the missile test — the seventh this year — was clearly meant to put Trump on notice. Pyongyang said the missile it launched could carry a nuclear warhead and warned that the US mainland is now within “sighting range for a strike.”
Trump’s April remark that “all options are on the table” with North Korea has raised tensions in the region and drawn rebukes from China and Russia. On April 27, Trump warned that “major conflict” was possible if diplomatic efforts failed.
The Washington-based North Korea monitoring project 38 North said Pyongyang’s Sunday launch could be seen as a direct response. “Given speculation over the past months about the possibility of military action by the Trump administration to prevent Pyongyang from acquiring such a weapons, the possible testing of ICBM subsystems in this low-key manner may be a North Korean hedge against the possibility of such action, ” the group said in a report.
