North Korea on Thursday conducted what appeared to be its second failed test in a week of a powerful medium-range missile that experts warn could be operationally deployed as early as next year.
North Korea on Thursday conducted what appeared to be its second failed test in a week of a powerful medium-range missile that experts warn could be operationally deployed as early as next year.
South Korean and US military monitors said the missile — believed to be an intermediate-range Musudan — exploded shortly after take-off at around 6:30 am Pyongyang time.
The attempted launch came just hours before the start of the third US presidential debate — a timely reminder of the challenge North Korea’s fast-moving nuclear weapons programme will pose to the next occupant of the White House.
It also followed a meeting in Washington between the US and South Korean defence and foreign ministers, at which US secretary of state John Kerry stressed that any use of nuclear weapons by the North would be “met with an effective and overwhelming response”.
Mr Kerry also confirmed the imminent deployment of a sophisticated US missile-defence system in the South to deter the growing North Korean missile threat.
It was the second failed launch in less than a week of the Musudan, which has a theoretical range of anywhere between 2,500 and 4,000 kilometres. US secretary of state John Kerry has said that Washington would deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile system in South Korea “as soon as possible.”
“We will deploy as soon as possible a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence battery to our Korean ally”, the Xinhua news agency quoted Kerry, as saying at the start of two-day foreign and defence ministerial talks between the United States and South Korea. He vowed that United States would “do whatever is necessary” to defend its allies in the region.
“The recent dramatic increase in North Korean nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches remind us of the grave threat it poses to our collective security,” said US defence secretary Ash Carter at the start of the talks, reiterating the US commitment to provide “extended deterrence, guaranteed by the full spectrum of US defence capabilities”. During the talks between the two sides reached an agreement to set up the “Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group.”
China and Russia have expressed strong opposition to the THAAD deployment saying the system far exceeds South Korea’s actual defence needs and would directly threaten the strategic security of the two countries.
Some analysts have also stressed that deploying missile defence systems may fuel a dangerous arms race in Northeast Asia, as China and Russia would probably take counter-measures that the US and South Korea cannot afford.
