South Korea and the United States fired off missiles Wednesday simulating a precision strike against North Korea’s leadership, in response to a landmark ICBM test described by Kim Jong-Un as a gift to “American bastards”.
Tuesday’s launch — acknowledged as an ICBM by Washington — marked a milestone in Pyongyang’s decades-long drive for the capability to threaten the US mainland with a nuclear strike, and poses a stark foreign policy challenge for Donald Trump.
The US president had vowed that “won’t happen”, but independent experts said it could reach Alaska or even further towards the continental US.
South Korean and US military forces launched short-range ballistic missiles of their own less than 24 hours afterwards from the peninsula into the Sea of Japan.
Both weapons homed in on their target, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “displaying the capability of a precision strike against the enemy headquarters in times of emergency”.
The South’s new President Moon Jae-In, who backs engagement with Pyongyang to bring it to the negotiating table, said the North’s “serious provocation required us to react with more than just a statement”.
US general Vincent Brooks, the Combined Forces commander in South Korea, said: “Self restraint, which is a choice, is all that separates armistice and war.
“As this Alliance missile live fire shows, we are able to change our choice when so ordered by our Alliance national leaders.”
The two countries are in a security alliance, with 28,500 US troops stationed in the South.
Source: AFP
