Donald Trump tells Shinzo Abe US ‘100% behind Japan’ after North Korea missile test

President Donald Trump has reassured Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that the United States is “100 percent” behind Japan following reports of North Korea conducting a fresh missile launch.

“The United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100 percent,” Trump said in brief remarks during a joint press conference with Abe in Florida late on Saturday.

The Japanese leader denounced the new launch as “intolerable.”

“North Korea’s most recent missile launch is absolutely intolerable. North Korea must fully comply with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” Abe said through a translator.

The remarks came a day after the two leaders held a joint press conference at the White House before heading to Trump’s private mansion in Palm Beach for the weekend.

US Strategic Command systems tracked a test launch over North Korea and into the Sea of Japan, and determined it was a medium- or intermediate-range ballistic missile, the Pentagon said on Saturday.

The missile test is the first conducted by North Korea since Trump took office on January 20.

An official with the South Korean Ministry of Defense also confirmed the test to CNN and said it was a ballistic missile.

The test of an intercontinental-range system would be especially provocative because the White House views it as an attempt by the North to develop the capability to strike the United States.

Trump has pledged to get tough on North Korea that tested several nuclear devices and ballistic missiles last year.

“Our assessment is that it is part of a show of force in response to the new US administration’s hardline position against the North,” the office of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, according to Reuters.

A White House spokesman said Trump was briefed on the new launch. However, the US president declined to comment when asked by reporters about the missile test as he posed for pictures with the Japanese leader ahead of a dinner in Florida.

Trump told Abe on Friday that defending against Pyongyang’s “nuclear and missile threat” was a “very, very high priority.”

Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, spoke to his South Korean counterpart Kim Kwan Jin after the latest launch. They both condemned the test and agreed “to seek all possible options” to deter North Korea.

The US maintains 47,000 military service members in Japan, mostly on the southern island of Okinawa.

Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump frequently criticized Washington’s commitment to its defense agreement with Japan.

Source: PressTV

North Korea conducts ballistic missile test

North Korea has fired a ballistic missile in the first such test since Donald Trump took office as US president.

Mr Trump assured Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that “America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100%”.

The missile flew east towards the Sea of Japan for about 500km (300 miles), South Korean officials say.

Mr Abe said the test was “absolutely intolerable”. Japanese officials say the missile did not reach its waters.

Speaking at a joint conference during a visit to the US, Mr Abe added that Mr Trump had also assured him that he was committed to “further enforcing our alliance”.

During his election campaign, Mr Trump said US defence commitments to Japan and South Korea were unfair and also called for Japan to pay the full cost of stationing US troops on its soil.

North Korea has conducted a number of nuclear tests in the past year that continue to alarm and anger the region.

Sunday’s launch took place at 07:55 local time (22:55 GMT Saturday) from the Banghyon air base in North Pyongan province on the west side of the Korean peninsula.

The missile reached an altitude of about 550km (350 miles), according to a South Korean official quoted by Reuters news agency, and appeared to be a Rodong medium-range missile.

In January, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned that his military was close to testing long-range missiles capable of reaching the United States and carrying nuclear warheads.

Mr Trump derided the claim in a tweet, saying: “It won’t happen.”

South Korea’s foreign ministry said that “North Korea’s repeated provocations show the Kim Jong-un regime’s nature of irrationality, maniacally obsessed in its nuclear and missile development”.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga confirmed the missile had not reached Japanese territorial waters, adding that Tokyo would make a “strong protest” to North Korea over the incident.

There has so far been no comment from North Korea.

On a visit to South Korea last week, US Defence Secretary James Mattis said that any use of nuclear weapons by North Korea would be met with an “effective and overwhelming” response.

He also reconfirmed plans to deploy a US missile defence system in South Korea later this year.

North Korea conducted its fifth test of a nuclear device last year, and claims it is capable of carrying out a nuclear attack on the US, though experts are still unconvinced that its technology has progressed that far.

Source: BBC

North Korea fires ballistic missile, drawing tough response from Donald Trump

A man watches the news showing file footage of North Korea's missile launch at a railway station in Seoul on February 12, 2017. North Korea fired a ballistic missile on February 12 in an apparent provocation to test the response from new US President Donald Trump, the South Korean defence ministry said.<br />JUNG Yeon-Je / AFP

North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Sunday, drawing a strong response from US President Donald Trump who vowed “100 percent” support for key ally Japan at a press conference with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The missile, the first test since Trump became president, was launched around 7:55 am (2255 GMT Saturday) from Banghyon air base in the western province of North Pyongan, and flew east towards the Sea of Japan (East Sea), the South Korean defence ministry said.

It flew about 500 kilometres (310 miles) before falling into the sea, a ministry spokesman said, adding the exact type of missile had yet to be identified.

“Today’s missile launch… is aimed at drawing global attention to the North by boasting its nuclear and missile capabilities”, the ministry said in a statement.

“It is also believed that it was an armed provocation to test the response from the new US administration under President Trump,” it added.

Trump responded with an assurance to the visiting Abe that Washington was committed to the security of its key Asian ally.

“I just want everybody to understand and fully know that the United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100 percent,” Trump said, without elaborating.

Abe denounced the launch as “absolutely intolerable” while top government spokesman Yoshihide Suge told reporters in Tokyo it was “clearly a provocation to Japan and the region”.

North Korea is barred under UN resolutions from any use of ballistic missile technology but six sets of UN sanctions since Pyongyang’s first nuclear test in 2006 have failed to halt its drive for what it insists are defensive weapons.

– ‘Clear provocation’ –
Last year the country conducted numerous tests and launches in its quest to develop a nuclear weapons system capable of hitting the US mainland.

A South Korean army official quoted by Yonhap news agency ruled out the possibility of a long-range missile test, describing the device as an upgraded version of the North’s short-range Rodong missile.

Seoul-based academic Yang Moo-Jin said the latest test was “a celebratory launch” to mark the February 16 birthday of Kim Jong-Il, late ruler and father of current leader Kim Jong-Un.

Pyongyang often celebrates key anniversaries involving current and former leaders with missile launches, Yang, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, told AFP.

South Korea’s acting president Hwang Gyo-Ahn vowed a “corresponding punishment” in response to the launch, which came on the heels of a visit to Seoul by new US Defense Secretary James Mattis earlier this month.

Mattis had warned Pyongyang that any nuclear attack would be met with an “effective and overwhelming” response.

Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, spoke to his South Korean counterpart Kim Kwan-Jin on the phone and agreed to “seek all possible options” to curb future provocations by the North, Seoul’s presidential office said in a statement.

In January leader Kim Jong-Un boasted that Pyongyang was in the “final stages” of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in an apparent attempt to pressure the incoming US president. Trump shot back on Twitter, saying “It won’t happen.”

James Char, senior analyst at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore, said the launch was Pyongyang’s “way of showing characteristic defiance against… Trump”.

– Test for Trump –
Washington has repeatedly vowed that it will never accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed nation and the latest launch poses a test for Trump, who will need the help of Beijing, Pyongyang’s closest ally, to deal with the reclusive state.

Relations between the two superpowers have thawed in recent days after Trump reaffirmed Washington’s “One China” policy in what he described as a “very warm” telephone conversation with President Xi Jinping.

“The recent Trump-Xi phone call would be considered an important platform from which the two powers will move forward,” Char said.

Analysts are divided over how close Pyongyang is to realising its full nuclear ambitions, especially as it has never successfully test-fired an ICBM.

But all agree it has made enormous strides in that direction since Kim took over after the death of his father in December 2011.

Iran’s ballistic missile test successful: Defense minister revels

Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan says Iran’s recent ballistic missile test has been “successful.”

“This missile test was successful,” the Iranian minister said as quoted by Tasnim News Agency, emphasizing that “Iran’s missile tests are not, and have never been, in violation of the JCPOA (Iran’s nuclear deal with six world powers) or [UN Security Council] Resolution 2231.”

Dehqan confirmed on Wednesday that the country had conducted a missile test within the framework of its defense program, saying the Islamic Republic does not allow any foreign meddling in its domestic defensive affairs.

The comments come days after the United States called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting to discuss the launch of what it described as a “medium-range” missile by Iran. The meeting ended without reaching any conclusive result.

Iranian defense minister’s remarks apparently came in reaction to media reports quoting some US officials as claiming that the test had failed as the missile flew some 600 miles before exploding.

Resolution 2231 was adopted by the UN Security Council in July 2015, days after Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, namely Russia, China, the US, the UK, and France plus Germany, signed the JCPOA, an acronym for the deal called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

The resolution, which turned the JCPOA into an international document, calls on Iran “not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.”

Iran’s defensive ballistic missile program has been a bone of contention with the West. Tehran says its missile tests do not breach UN resolutions because they are solely for defense purposes and not designed to carry nuclear warheads.

Arms control experts have also said that Iran’s missile tests are not banned under the nuclear agreement and the UNSC resolution, because Iran’s missiles are not meant to deliver nuclear warheads.

Iranian officials have in recent days joined voices to support the country’s defense program in the face of the latest provocative remarks by officials of the new US administration on Tehran’s domestic defense agenda.

In a Tuesday statement, 220 Iranian lawmakers expressed all-out support for Iran’s Armed Forces, saying “the reinforcement of the defense capabilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran in line with deterrence strategy” is an absolute necessity to ensure the country’s national security.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has also described missile tests as an “inalienable and absolute” right of the nation, emphasizing that no country or international body can have any say in this regard.

Source: Press TV