no indications of any action it might take.
Pyongyang's
test of the intermediate-range ballistic missile on Sunday was its first direct
challenge to the international community since U.S. President Donald Trump took
office on Jan. 20.
At a news
conference on Monday, Trump said: "Obviously North Korea is a big, big
problem and we will deal with that very strongly."
Trump did
not speak of any planned response but Washington's U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley
said in a statement: "It is time to hold North Korea accountable – not
with our words, but with our actions."
She issued
the statement after an emergency Security Council meeting on Monday that was
called by the United States, Japan and South Korea to discuss the North's
missile launch.
U.S.,
Japanese and South Korean military officials held a teleconference on Monday in
which they condemned the launch as "a clear violation" of multiple
Security Council resolutions. The United States "reaffirmed its ironclad
security commitments" to South Korea and Japan, the Pentagon said.
A South
Korean official said the United States has planned to deploy "strategic
assets" in upcoming annual military exercises with South Korea because of
the increased threat from the North. The exercises usually start in March.
The official
did not say what assets might be used. In the past, these have included B-2
bombers, F-22 stealth fighter jets and nuclear-powered submarines.
South
Korea's intelligence agency estimates the solid-fuel missile launched by North
Korea on Sunday has a range of more than 2,000 km (1,240 miles), the South's
Yonhap news agency said. That would bring large parts of China, Taiwan, Japan,
Russia and the tip of the Philippines within range.
The North
has tested missiles with a range of over 3,000 km (2,000 miles) in the past,
but has said it is on the verge of testing an intercontinental ballistic
missile (ICBM), which could eventually threaten the continental United States,
which is about 9,000 km (5,500 miles) from North Korea.
"We are
keeping an eye out, thinking data and technology from the latest test can be
applied (to an ICBM)," South Korean Defence Minister Han Min-koo told
lawmakers on Tuesday.
Trump
tweeted "It won’t happen!" after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said
in January the North was close to an ICBM test.
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North and
South Korea are technically still at war because their 1950-1953 conflict ended
in a truce, not a peace treaty. The North regularly threatens to destroy the
South and the South's main ally, the United States.
The Security
Council did not specify what steps might be taken beyond the U.N.-sponsored
sanctions regime imposed on North Korea since 2006 over its nuclear and
ballistic missile tests.
"The
members of the Security Council deplore all the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea ballistic missile activities, including these launches," the council
said in a statement that also referred to North Korea's missile launch on Oct.
19.
The
statement "called upon all member states to redouble their efforts to implement
fully the measures imposed on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea by the
Security Council."
Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday that he expected the Trump
administration would adopt a harder line on North Korea.
"I
believe that the stance of the United States towards North Korea will become
much tougher, that is clear," Abe said on an NHK public broadcasting news
program after returning from meetings with Trump in the United States.
North Korea
has said any sanctions against its missile or nuclear programs are a violation
of its sovereignty and right to self-defense.
* REUTERS*
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