The White House is calling North Korea a “flagrant menace” following the test launch of a ballistic missile, the seventh such firing this year.
The White House is calling North Korea a “flagrant menace” after the test launch of a ballistic missile, the seventh such firing this year.
President Trump was briefed on the missile test, according to a statement the White House released late Saturday. The missile firing took place Sunday, North Korea time, with the projectile landing in the sea between North Korea and Japan.
“The United States maintains our ironclad commitment to stand with our allies in the face of the serious threat posed by North Korea, ” the statement said.
Washington and its allies will continue to “tighten the screws” on North Korea’s mercurial leader Kim Jong Un, said Nikki Haley, the U. S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Speaking to ABC’s “This Week, ” Haley said Kim is “in a state of paranoia… incredibly concerned about anything and everything around him.”
The White House statement called for stronger sanctions against the North but did not directly threaten U. S. military action. Trump has said that bellicose actions by Kim’s government could trigger “major, major conflict.”
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said the country tested a new type of long-range missile “capable of carrying a large-size heavy nuclear warhead.” Kim was reported to have witnessed the launch and “hugged officials in the field of rocket research, saying that they worked hard to achieve a great thing.”
The test firing, against a backdrop of rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, came four days after South Korea’s new president, Moon Jae-in, took office.
