North Korea fires missile into Sea of Japan
South Korea's
Defence ministry said the missile had flown some 60 kilometres (about 40 miles).
Nuclear-armed North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the Sea
of Japan, South Korea and the US military said, days after Pyongyang
warned of retaliation if the global community ramps up sanctions.
South Korea's defence ministry said the missile had flown some 60 kilometres (about 40 miles).
"The military is keeping a close watch over North Korea's provocative moves and maintaining a high defence posture", it said.
The US military said it was a KN-15 medium-range ballistic missile which they had determined posed no threat to America.
"US
Pacific Command is fully committed to working closely with our Republic
of Korea and Japanese allies to maintain security," the military
command in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region said.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson confirmed Pyongyang had launched "yet another" intermediate range ballistic missile.
"The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment," he said in a statement.
Japan condemned the launch and said it violated UN Security Council resolutions.
"Japan
never tolerates North Korea's repeated provocative actions. The
government strictly protested and strongly condemned it," Chief Cabinet
Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.
The launch will fuel international concerns about the hermit state's weapons programme.
Pyongyang
is on a quest to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the US
mainland with a nuclear warhead, and has so far staged five nuclear
tests, two of them last year.
The latest launch came after
President Donald Trump threatened the US was prepared to go it alone in
bringing the North to heel if China did not step in, and ahead of a
meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
North Korea's
foreign ministry on Monday assailed Washington for its tough talk and
for an ongoing joint military exercise with South Korea and Japan which
Pyongyang sees as a dress rehearsal for invasion.
The "reckless
actions" are driving the tense situation on the Korean peninsula "to the
brink of a war", a ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the
official KCNA news agency.
The idea that the US could deprive Pyongyang of its "nuclear deterrent" through sanctions is "the wildest dream", it said
Trump
and Xi will hold their first face-to-face meeting tomorrow at the US
president's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida where the growing tensions on
the Korean peninsula are expected to be high on the agenda.
The
hardened US stance followed recent North Korean missile launches that
Pyongyang described as practice for an attack on US bases in Japan.
In
February the North simultaneously fired four ballistic missiles off its
east coast, three of which fell provocatively close to Japan.
Last
August Pyongyang also successfully test-fired a submarine-launched
ballistic missile 500 kilometres towards Japan, far exceeding any
previous sub-launched tests, in what the North's leader Kim Jong-Un
hailed as the "greatest success".
A nuclear-capable SLBM system
would take the North's threat to a new level, allowing deployment far
beyond the Korean peninsula and a "second-strike" capability in the
event of an attack on its army bases.
Analysts say that while
Pyongyang has made faster progress in its SLBM system than originally expected, it is still years away from deployment.
Pyongyang is barred under UN resolutions from carrying out ballistic missile launches or nuclear tests
Read more for Indian Stock Tips-http://bit.ly/ace_services