Donald Trump in stern warning to North Korea after missile test: 'All options are on the table'

Stern warning: US President Donald Trump
AP
Hatty Collier29 August 2017

Donald Trump has said “all options are on the table” in a stern warning to North Korea after it fired a ballistic missile over Japan.

The US President said the missile test signalled North Korea’s “contempt for its neighbours” and “all members of the United Nations.”

His comments came after Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the “reckless act” was “an unprecedented, serious and important threat”.

He added that he had spoken to Mr Trump and they had both agreed to ramp up pressure on North Korea.

Pedestrians watch the news on a huge screen displaying a map of Japan (R) and the Korean Peninsula, in Tokyo
AFP/Getty Images

In a statement released on Tuesday, Mr Trump said: “The world has received North Korea’s latest message loud and clear; this regime has signalled its contempt for its neighbours, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behaviour.

“Threatening and destabilising actions only increase the North Korean regime’s isolation in the region and among all nations of the world. All options are on the table.”

The missile was launched from Pyongyang early on Tuesday Korean time, before flying over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido and crashing into the sea.

It triggered warnings from the Japanese government for citizens on the island to take cover in a “sturdy building or basement”.

North Korea has previously launched two rockets over Japan, in 1998 and 2009, saying on both occasions that they were for satellite launch vehicles as opposed to weapons.

The country has stepped up its missile testing this year, prompting some analysts to suggest it could have viable long-range nuclear missiles before the end of President Donald Trump's first term in early 2021.

North Korea has stepped up missile launches in recent months (file image) 
AFP/Getty Images

The missile flew about 1,677 miles, reaching a maximum altitude of about 342 miles, according to analysis by South Korean military figures.

South Korea’s President, Moon Jae-in, responded to the test with a show of “overwhelming” force, with jets staging a live bombing drill.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un 
EPA

The latest provocation, ordered by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, comes after the country tested a new intermediate-range missile that Pyongyang recently threatened to fire towards the US territory of Guam, which hosts a major military base.

This missile landed nowhere near Guam, which is about 1,550 miles south of Tokyo, but the length of Tuesday's launch may have been designed for the North to show it could follow through on its threat.

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