North Korea tests first intercontinental ballistic weapons;
U.S. and South Korea respond with ‘deep strike’ precision shots
Via the AP:
The United States asserted Tuesday that North Korea’s latest missile launch was indeed an intercontinental ballistic missile, as the North had boasted and the U.S. and South Korea had feared.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called the development – the North’s first test launch of a missile capable of reaching the U.S. – a “new escalation of the threat” to the U.S. and the world.
In a show of force directly responding to North Korea’s provocation, U.S. and South Korean soldiers fired “deep strike” precision missiles into South Korean territorial waters 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.
At the request of the U.S., Japan and South Korea, the United Nations Security Council was to hold an emergency session this afternoon. Tillerson said that was part of a U.S. response that would include “stronger measures to hold the DPRK accountable,” using an acronym for the isolated nation’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“Global action is required to stop a global threat,” Tillerson said. “Any country that hosts North Korean guest workers, provides any economic or military benefits, or fails to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions is aiding and abetting a dangerous regime.”
He said the U.S. “will never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea.”