It will be interesting to see if President Trump enforces his redline against a North Korean ICBM test because it looks like the Kim regime is testing the waters to see what the Trump administration’s response will be to this:
North Korea’s official newspaper claimed Saturday that a test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile is not far away.
“The series of recent strategic weapons tests show that we are not too far away from test-firing an intercontinental ballistic missile,” the Rodong Sinmun said in an editorial.
The claim indicates the regime has continued to advance its missile technology since its leader Kim Jong-un said during his annual address on Jan. 1 that the regime was in the final stage of developing ICBM technology. (…..)
“The great success of test-firing an intercontinental ballistic missile, which we are sure to achieve, will mark a historic watershed moment in the failure of the U.S. hostile policy against us,” the editorial in the ruling Workers’ Party’s mouthpiece read. “Historically speaking, the U.S. has never dared to go to war with a country that possesses nuclear weapons or ICBMs.” [Yonhap]
The place is equidistant from Chuncheon (about 40 miles from Seoul) & Sokcho on the coast. Several NK drones crashed nearby in the past. pic.twitter.com/uFCG1pnWEx
Another setback for President Moon’s Sunshine 2.0:
This file photo, taken on Feb. 20, 2014, shows the reunions of family members separated by the 1950-53 Korean War held at Mount Kumgang in North Korea. (Yonhap)
North Korea rejected South Korean lawmakers’ call to hold a reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, saying Wednesday there can “never be any kind of humanitarian cooperation” between the two countries unless 13 North Koreans “detained” in the South are returned.
They include a group of 12 workers from a restaurant in China run by the North Korean government, whom Seoul says defected voluntarily. Pyongyang claims they were kidnapped by South Korea’s spy agency.
The North also wants a 13th citizen, Kim Ryon-hui, a vocal Kim Jung-un endorser here who wishes to go back home. She left her home in Pyongyang to seek advanced medical treatment in China for a liver illness. She asserts to have been deceived by a Chinese broker in 2011, who told her she could make a fortune in the South and then return to China or North Korea. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
This was NK's 5th launch since Moon. This one landed in NK waters & 1 was surface-to-air. The remaining 3 landed in/near Japan/Russia's EEZ. pic.twitter.com/hfa3XPAmze
This will give the US Navy something to think about:
North Korea fired several short-range antiship cruise missiles Thursday morning off its eastern coast, which flew about 200 kilometers (124 miles) after peaking at an altitude of 2 kilometers before landing in the East Sea, local military officials said.
The first missile, detected by South Korean authorities at 6:18 a.m., was followed by “several more” projectiles for “several minutes.” The type of missile was not immediately known, as is often the usual case. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were fired from the vicinity of North Korea’s eastern coastal city of Wonsan, Kangwon Province.
The South Korean and U.S. militaries are cooperating for further analysis. It was North Korea’s fifth missile test since President Moon Jae-in took office on May 10, and its 10th this year. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link. Here is what President Moon had to say in response to the 5th North Korean missile test since he took office:
After receiving reports about the provocation from the JCS as well as national security adviser Chung Eui-yong, President Moon convened a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) at 2 p.m. at Cheong Wa Dae to discuss countermeasures.
During the meeting, Moon made it clear that his government will never compromise on issues related to national security, presidential spokesman Park Soo-hyun said.
“North Korea will only face the deepening of its isolation and economic trouble should it stick to this provocative mode,” Moon was quoted as saying.
The President also vowed to enhance the country’s ability to defend against the North’s nuclear and missile threats while maintaining the ROK-U.S. combined defense readiness, according to Park. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but degrading THAAD’s capability like President Moon is currently advocating for does not sound to me like enhancing the country’s capability to defend against missile attacks.
Officials at the Korean National Red Cross in Seoul check a database on inter-Korean families separated during the 1950-53 Korean War on June 5, 2017, when the speaker and ruling and opposition floor leaders agreed to seek their reunion on the Aug. 15 Independence Day. (Yonhap)
A group of North Korean soldiers looks down the southern side of the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom from the rooftop of the Panmungak Pavilion on June 2, 2017. (Yonhap)
