SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – North Korea appears to be preparing a test-launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said on Tuesday, after what the United States described as the “fiery, catastrophic” failure of the first attempt.
Separately, President Barack Obama said the United States is working on defending itself and its allies against potential threats from what he called an “erratic” country with an “irresponsible” leader.
On April 15, the North failed to launch what was likely a Musudan missile, with a range of more than 3,000 km (1,800 miles), meaning it could, if launched successfully, hit Japan and also theoretically put the U.S. territory of Guam within range.
The Musudan missile, which can be fired from a mobile launcher, is not known to have been successfully flight-tested.
In a CBS interview that aired on Tuesday, Obama said the United States “is spending a lot more time positioning our missile development systems, so that even as we try to resolve the underlying problem of nuclear development inside of North Korea, we’re also setting up a shield that can at least block the relatively low-level threats that they’re posing now.”
North Korea tested its fourth nuclear bomb on Jan. 6 and launched a long-range rocket on Feb. 7, both in defiance of U.N. resolutions. On Saturday, the North conducted a test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile.
“There are indications that the North may fire a Musudan missile that it launched and failed on Kim Il Sung’s birthday on April 15,” Yonhap quoted an unnamed government official as saying. Kim Il Sung is the North’s founder.
North Korea needs a “powerful nuclear deterrence” to counter U.S. hostility and threats, North Korea’s foreign ministry was quoted by the state news agency KCNA as saying on Tuesday.
Obama said there “was no easy solution” to the North Korean threat, adding that while the United States “could destroy North Korea with our arsenals” there would not only be humanitarian costs but also a potential impact on South Korea.
The April 15 failure was seen as an embarrassing blow for current leader Kim Jong Un, Kim Il Sung’s grandson, who has claimed several advances in weapons technology in recent months and is widely expected to conduct a fifth nuclear test soon.
