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ASIA / PACIFIC Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER December 4, 2017 Haley: North Korea “brings us closer to war” the U.S. doesn’t seek By Edith M. Lederer and Matthew Pennington The Associated Press U 8 1 7 4 3 2 5 9 the power of the missile and suddenness of the test jolted the Korean Peninsula and Washington. The launch at 3:17am on Wednesday, November 29 local time — early Tuesday afternoon in the U.S. capital — indicated an effort to perfect the element of surprise and obtain maximum attention in the U.S. In a government statement released through state media, North Korea said the Hwasong-15, the “greatest ICBM,” could be armed with a “super-large heavy nuclear warhead” and is capable of striking the “whole mainland” of the U.S. The North said the missile reached a height of 4,475 kilometers (2,780 miles) and travelled 590 miles before accurately hitting a sea target, similar to the flight data announced by South Korea’s military. After the launch, it said leader Kim Jong Un “declared with pride” that his country has achieved its goal of becoming a “rocket power.” State television said Kim gave the order, and it broadcast a photo of Kim’s signed order where he wrote: “Test launch is approved. Taking place at the daybreak of November 29! Fire with courage for the party and country!” Later during a speech, Trump could not resist taking a dig at Kim. Digressing during a speech in Missouri on tax reform, Trump called Kim “Little Rocket Man” and described him as “a sick puppy.” The North Korean launch was a message of defiance to the Trump administration after it restored North Korea to a U.S. list of terror sponsors. It raises fears of war or a pre-emptive U.S. strike and casts a deeper shadow over the security of the Winter Olympics early next year in South Korea. A rattled Seoul responded by almost immediately What North Korean photos say about new ballistic missile By Eric Talmadge The Associated Press OKYO — North Korea released dozens of photos of the Hwasong-15, a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) it claims can reach any target in the continental United States. The photo dump, published in the paper and online editions of the ruling party’s official daily, is a goldmine for rocket experts trying to parse reality from bluster. Their general conclusion is that it’s bigger, more advanced, and comes with a domestically made mobile launcher that will make it harder than ever to pre-emptively destroy. 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(Korean Central News Agency via AP) NITED NATIONS — The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) — which some observers believe could reach the eastern U.S. — “brings us closer” to a war the U.S. isn’t seeking. Nikki Haley, speaking at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, said that if war comes as a result of further acts of “aggression” like the latest launch, “make no mistake, the North Korean regime will be utterly destroyed.” “The dictator of North Korea made a decision yesterday that brings us closer to war, not farther from it,” Haley said. “We have never sought war with North Korea and still today we do not seek it.” The Trump administration threatened new sanctions on North Korea after the reclusive government shattered two-and-a-half months of relative quiet with its most powerful weapon test yet. President Donald Trump tweeted that he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about Pyongyang’s “provocative actions,” and he vowed that “additional major sanctions will be imposed on North Korea today. This situation will be handled!” Trump’s top diplomat, Rex Tillerson, said the U.S. could target financial institutions doing business with the North. Ambassador Haley told the United Nations Security Council that North Korea’s missile launch “brings us closer to war.” At the emergency Security Council meeting, China’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Wu Haitao, reiterated the China-Russia proposal for North Korea to suspend all nuclear and missile tests and for the U.S. and South Korea to suspend all military exercises. Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, also urged North Korea to stop the tests and called on the U.S. and South Korea to cancel large-scale military maneuvers scheduled for December. Haley said the world’s nations have the power to further isolate and reverse North Korea’s dangerous course, by cutting all ties to the country and enforcing U.N. sanctions. She said Trump during his call to Xi urged the Chinese president to cut off all oil deliveries to North Korea. “That would be a pivotal step in the world’s effort to stop this international pariah,” she said. The fresh deliberations about new forms of punishment for North Korea came after its government said it successfully fired a “significantly more” powerful, nuclear-capable ICBM it called the Hwasong-15. Outside governments and analysts concurred the North had made a jump in missile capability. A resumption of Pyongyang’s torrid testing pace in pursuit of a viable arsenal of nuclear-tipped missiles that can hit the U.S. mainland had been widely expected. But MISSILE MADNESS. Nikki Haley, center, the current United States ambassador to the United Nations, is seen at a Security Council meeting on maintenance of international peace and security. Haley said North Ko- rea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile “brings us closer” to a war the U.S. isn’t seeking. (Photo by Luiz Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire/ Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images) launching three of its own missiles in a show of force. South Korean President Moon Jae-in expressed worry that North Korea’s missile threat could force the U.S. to attack the North before it masters a nuclear-tipped long-range missile. The launch was North Korea’s first since September 15 and may have broken any efforts at diplomacy. U.S. officials have sporadically floated the idea of direct talks with North Korea if it maintained restraint. The missile also appeared an improvement on North Korea’s past launches. If flown on a standard trajectory, instead of the lofted angle of the test flight, the missile would have a range of more than 8,100 miles, said U.S. scientist David Wright, a physicist who closely tracks North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs. “Such a missile would have more than enough range to reach Washington, D.C., and in fact any part of the continental United States,” Wright wrote in a blog post for the Union for Concerned Scientists. Japanese defense minister Itsunori Onodera said the missile landed inside Japan’s special economic zone in the Sea of Japan. A big unknown, however, is the missile’s payload. If, as expected, it carried a light mock warhead, then its effective range would have been shorter, analysts said. In his call with Xi, Trump made clear “the determination of the United States to defend ourselves and our allies,” according to a White House statement. Trump also “emphasized the need for China to use all available levers to convince North Korea to end its provocations and return to the path of denuclearization.” The Trump administration bolstered U.S. sanctions against North Korea in November and imposed new restrictions on North Korean shipping firms and Chinese companies that deal with the North. China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said Xi told Trump that China remained determined to clear the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons, and to preserve peace and stability in Northeast Asia. Lederer reported from the United Nations. Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and Robert Burns in Washington, Foster Klug and Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report. launch. Here’s a closer look: The missile The North’s new missile appears to be significantly bigger than the Hwasong-14 ICBM it tested twice in July. Note how in the photo it dwarfs North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who stands about 5’7” tall. In a tweet just after the photos were published, Michael Duitsman, a researcher at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California, said: “This is very big missile ... And I don’t mean ‘Big for North Korea.’ Only a few countries can produce missiles of this size, and North Korea just joined the club.” Size is important because a missile targeting the United States would have to carry a lot of fuel. Duitsman also suggested the new ICBM appears to have a different engine arrangement and improved steering. The launcher North Korea boasted repeatedly in its announcement of the launch that the Hawasong-15 was fired from a domestically made erector-launcher vehicle. Its photos back that up. Being able to make its own mobile launch vehicles, called TELs, frees the North from the need to get them from other countries, like China, which is crucial considering the tightening of international sanctions that Pyongyang faces. TELs make it easier to move missiles around and launch them from remote, hard-to-predict locations. That makes finding and destroying the Continued on page 5