US and allies vow pressure on North Korea after new missile launch

Space war

2 years ago

US Vice President Kamala Harris and leaders from Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Canada vowed to pressure North Korea as they held urgent talks Friday on Pyongyang’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Hours after North Korea launched the missile, which Japan said was capable of striking the US mainland, Harris met the leaders of close US partners on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Bangkok.

“We strongly condemn these actions and we again call for North Korea to stop further unlawful, destabilising acts,” Harris told reporters at the start of the talks.

“On behalf of the United States, I reaffirm our ironclad commitment to our Indo-Pacific alliances,” she said, using another term for the Asia-Pacific region.

Japan said the missile landed in its waters.

The launch follows weeks of spiralling tensions with North Korea, which US intelligence believes is preparing a seventh nuclear test.

A White House statement on the Bangkok talks said that the six leaders also warned of a “strong and resolute response” if North Korea — officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — carries out the nuclear test.

The leaders agreed “that the path to dialogue remains open for the DPRK, and they called on the DPRK to abandon needless provocation and to return to serious and sustained diplomacy”, the statement said.

In a veiled reference to China, Pyongyang’s primary lifeline, the statement also called on all members of the United Nations to “fully implement” Security Council resolutions, which imposed broad sanctions on North Korea.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that the leaders also wanted an emergency session of the UN Security Council — where China and Russia in May vetoed a US-led bid to tighten sanctions on North Korea.

“This is about the globe coming together to condemn the actions of North Korea, to stand up for peace and security in our region,” Albanese told Australian reporters.

But Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, speaking at the meeting, acknowledged concerns that North Korea is ignoring pressure.

“There is the possibility that North Korea will launch further missiles,” Kishida said.

South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said that the “brazen” missile launch must “never be tolerated”.

“The international community must respond in a resolute manner,” Han said.

– Raising pressure –

It was the latest meeting on North Korea.

US President Joe Biden met Sunday with Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on the sidelines of a Southeast Asian summit in Cambodia.

They issued a similar warning against a nuclear test — prompting North Korea to denounce the three-way meeting as evidence of US hostility.

Friday’s meeting showed no backing down by the allies, which added three more countries to their common front.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he joined allies in “condemning in the strongest terms” the “continued irresponsible actions of North Korea”.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promised her country’s “ongoing response and strength of response”, saying she understood the “anxiety” of Japan and South Korea.

Despite the pressure campaign, the Biden administration believes that China ultimately is the country with the greatest chance of pressuring North Korea.

Biden met Monday with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali and voiced confidence that Beijing shared basic goals on North Korea — one of the world’s most isolated and poorest nations.

“I’m confident China’s not looking for North Korea to engage in further escalation,” Biden told reporters afterwards.

Harris is participating in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting after Biden flew home for his granddaughter’s wedding.

Biden has offered to begin working-level dialogue with North Korea but has seen no interest from Pyongyang.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held three made-for-television meetings with Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, succeeding in easing tensions but reaching no lasting agreement.

The United States says it will never recognise North Korea as a nuclear power, while most experts believe Pyongyang will never give up its arsenal.

Fire and fury: North Korea’s banned weapons programmes
Seoul (AFP) Nov 18, 2022 –
Here is a timeline of North Korea’s banned nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes:

– Beginnings –

North Korea’s nuclear ambitions date back to 1953, when hostilities in the Korean War ended in a stalemate.

In the 1960s, Pyongyang receives nuclear technology and hardware from the Soviet Union — a key Cold War ally — to create a nuclear energy programme.

Scientists are believed to be working on a clandestine nuclear weapons programme by the 1980s, having reverse-engineered missiles from a Soviet-era Scud.

– Longer range –

Pyongyang carries out its first test of Scud-style Hwasong missiles in 1984.

It begins developing longer-range missiles from 1987, including the Taepodong-1 (2,500 kilometres or 1,550 miles) and Taepodong-2 (6,700 km).

The programme receives a major boost, possibly including warhead design blueprints, from rogue Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan in the 1990s.

The Taepodong-1 is test-fired over Japan in 1998, but Pyongyang declares a moratorium on such tests the next year as ties with the United States improve.

– 2006-13: Nuclear tests –

North Korea ends the moratorium in 2005, blaming “hostile” US policy under President George W. Bush, and carries out its first nuclear test on October 9, 2006.

A second underground nuclear test is carried out in May 2009, several times more powerful than the first.

Kim Jong Un succeeds as leader of North Korea after the death of his father Kim Jong Il in December 2011, and oversees a third nuclear test in 2013.

– 2016: Japanese waters –

Pyongyang claims a fourth underground nuclear test in January 2016 is a hydrogen bomb.

In August, it launches a ballistic missile directly into Japanese-controlled waters for the first time. It then successfully tests another submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) the same month.

A fifth nuclear test follows in September.

– 2017: ‘Fire and fury’ –

Pyongyang launches multiple ballistic missiles between February and May that land in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea. It says the tests are drills for possible attacks on US bases in Japan.

It says in May it has tested an intermediate-range ballistic rocket, the Hwasong-12, which flies 700 km.

On July 4, North Korea announces it successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching Alaska — a gift for the “American bastards” announced on US Independence Day.

A second ICBM test follows the same month.

Then-president Donald Trump threatens Pyongyang with “fire and fury” over its missile programme.

– 2017: Largest nuclear test yet –

North Korea conducts its sixth and largest nuclear test on September 3, 2017. Monitoring groups estimate a yield of 250 kilotons, 16 times the size of the US bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945.

Trump declares North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism and imposes fresh sanctions.

Pyongyang launches a new Hwasong-15 ICBM on November 29, which it claims could deliver a “super-large heavy warhead” anywhere on the US mainland.

Analysts doubt that Pyongyang has mastered the advanced technology needed for the rocket to survive re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

– 2018: Detente –

Pyongyang says on April 21, 2018, that nuclear tests and ICBM launches will cease immediately and that its nuclear test site will be dismantled ahead of a first meeting between Trump and Kim in Singapore in June.

– 2019-2021: New weapons, new tensions –

A second summit between Trump and Kim in Hanoi collapses in February 2019.

Tensions mount again in 2021, with North Korea carrying out a number of weapons tests, including a claimed SLBM launch, another launched from a train, and what it says is a hypersonic glide missile.

– March 2022: ‘Monster’ missile –

On March 16, Pyongyang fires a suspected Hwasong-17, which analysts have dubbed the “monster missile”. But it explodes immediately after launch.

Days later, Pyongyang successfully fires an ICBM on March 24 — which it claims is the Hwasong-17.

But Washington and Seoul suspect it was actually an older Hwasong-15, and that Pyongyang faked a “monster missile” launch for domestic propaganda reasons.

– September-October 2022: Tactical nuclear drills –

After Kim announces earlier in the year that he will accelerate nuclear development, North Korea changes its laws in September to allow a preventive nuclear strike and declares itself an “irreversible” nuclear power.

On October 4, Pyongyang fires an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) over Japan for the first time in five years, prompting Tokyo to issue a rare warning for people to take shelter.

North Korea says a week later the test launch of a new IRBM was part of two-week-long “tactical nuclear” drills overseen by Kim.

– November 2022: Record-breaking blitz –

Pyongyang fires more than 20 missiles on November 2 — including one that lands close to South Korean waters — and an artillery barrage into a maritime “buffer zone”, part of what it says is a response to large-scale US-South Korea air drills.

One short-range ballistic missile crosses the de facto maritime border, with residents on Ulleungdo island told to seek shelter. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol slams it as “effectively a territorial invasion”.

North Korea fires three more missiles the next day, including an ICBM that Seoul says failed.

Then on November 18, Pyongyang fires another ICBM, which Tokyo says might be able to hit the US mainland, depending on the weight of its warhead.

The ICBM launch comes a day after Pyongyang warned of “fiercer” military action if the US strengthened its “extended deterrence” commitment to South Korea and Japan against the North’s military actions.

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Xi, Kishida to meet as N. Korea fires missile

Bangkok (AFP) Nov 17, 2022

The leaders of China and Japan will hold their first face-to-face talks in three years on Thursday, after North Korea fired the latest in a record-breaking missile blitz that has sent nuclear fears soaring.

Chinese President Xi Jinping flies in to the talks in Bangkok from a G20 meeting in Bali where US President Joe Biden pressed him to use his influence to rein in Pyongyang’s activities.

As Xi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida prepared to meet, North Korea fired a short-range ballistic … read more