Page 12 The Skanner July 5, 2017
World News
Briefs
North Korea Long-Range
Missile Test Spurs US Calls
for Action
WASHINGTON (AP) — North Korea’s
first test of an intercontinental ballis-
tic missile, demonstrating a dangerous
new reach for weapons it hopes to top
with nuclear warheads one day, is spur-
ring U.S. demands for “global action” to
counter the threat.
U.S. officials confirmed Tuesday their
belief that North Korea’s latest missile
launch was indeed an ICBM and joined
South Korea and Japan in requesting
an emergency meeting of the U.N. Se-
curity Council, scheduled Wednesday
afternoon. Previously, North Korea
had demonstrated missiles of short and
medium range but never one able to get
to the United States.
In a show of force directly respond-
ing to North Korea’s provocation, U.S.
and South Korean soldiers fired “deep
strike” precision missiles into South
Korean territorial waters on Tuesday,
U.S. military officials in Seoul said. The
missile firings demonstrated
U.S.-South Korean solidarity,
the U.S. Eighth Army said in
a statement.
Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson vowed “stronger
measures to hold the DPRK
accountable,” using an acro-
nym for the isolated nation’s
formal name, and said: “Glob-
al action is required to stop a
global threat.” Any country
helping North Korea militar-
ily or economically, taking in
its guest workers or falling
short on Security Council
resolutions, he said, “is aid-
ing and abetting a dangerous
regime.”
Tillerson’s statement, is-
sued Tuesday evening as
most Americans were cel-
ebrating the Fourth of July
holiday, notably did not men-
tion China, whose help the
Trump administration has
been aggressively seeking to
press Pyongyang over its nu-
clear weapons program.
KRT VIA AP VIDEO
News
This image made from video of a news bulletin aired by North
Korea’s KRT on July 4 shows what was said to be North Korea
leader Kim Jung Un, center, applauding after the launch of a
Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile, ICBM, in North
Korea’s northwest. Independent journalists were not given
access to cover the event depicted in this photo. Keeping North
Korea from having a nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic
missile has long been considered a key U.S. red line; and one
Pyongyang has thumbed its nose at for years. Its Fourth of July
ICBM launch is just the latest step in its long march toward, and
maybe over, that line.
Trump Looks for
Friendlier European
Welcome in Poland
WASHINGTON (AP) — President
Donald Trump is headed back to Eu-
rope hoping to receive a friendly wel-
come in Poland despite lingering skep-
ticism across the continent over his
commitment to NATO, his past praise
of Russian President Vladimir Putin
and his decision to pull the U.S. out of a
major climate agreement.
Trump arrives in Warsaw, Poland,
on Wednesday for a brief visit that will
include a speech in Krasinski Square,
near the site of the 1944 Warsaw Up-
rising against the Nazis. He’ll also meet
with the leaders of Poland and Croatia
and hold a joint news conference with
Polish President Andrzej Duda.
Before moving on to an international
summit in Germany, the president will
also hold meetings with the leaders of
a dozen countries located between the
Baltic, Adriatic and Black seas at a sum-
mit of the Three Seas Initiative, which
aims to expand and modernize energy
and trade. One of the initiative’s goals
is to make the region less dependent on
Russian energy.
“Even if he doesn’t mention Putin or
Russia outright, just stepping foot in
Poland sends a powerful statement,”
said Jim Carafano, a foreign policy an-
alyst at the Heritage Foundation, a con-
servative think tank. “Europe is work-
ing for energy independence — looking
for free market solutions — and Poland
is in the middle of that energy corridor,
so it makes so much sense that the pres-
ident would go there and talk about en-
ergy policy.”
At the same time, Trump will have to
balance his visit to Europe with esca-
lating tensions with North Korea, after
the U.S. concluded Tuesday that North
Korea had test-launched its first inter-
continental ballistic missile. The U.S.,
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