27 May, 2017
North Korea has claimed it successfully tested a ground-to-ground mid-to-long-range missile Saturday, a launch that is seen as an expected leap forward in the nation's missile capabilities and one that puts the US territory of Guam potentially reliably within reach.
Council diplomats say the US and China, the North's closest ally, have been working on a new sanctions resolution. If not, will Trump accept the growing calls from Congress to start targeting Chinese companies that help Pyongyang access worldwide markets, even if that puts U.S.
The U.N. Security Council is set to discuss North Korea's latest provocation Tuesday.
"There's a lot of sanctions left that we can start to do, whether it's with oil, whether it's with energy, whether it's with their maritime ships, exports", US Ambassador Nikki Haley told ABC television's "This Week".
China is feeling increasingly alienated from its wayward North Korean ally and Sunday's headline-grabbing missile launch won't have helped matters.
Putin made the comments on the sidelines of the One Belt One Road summit in Beijing, a meeting of 29 heads of state convened by Chinese President Xi Jinping to push his vision for China's global expansion.
Sunday's test came less than a week after South Korea elected a new president, Moon Jae-In, who advocates reconciliation with Pyongyang and had expressed a willingness to visit the North to ease tensions. Pyongyang's aggressive push to boost its weapons program also makes it one of the Trump administration's most urgent foreign-policy worries, though Washington has struggled to settle on a policy.
"They have the overwhelming dominant economic relationship with North Korea and because they have the greatest leverage, they have the greatest responsibility", he added.
"It appears to have not only demonstrated an intermediate-range ballistic missile that might enable them to reliably strike the USA base at Guam, but more importantly, may represent a substantial advance to developing an intercontinental ballistic missile". Trump has feted Xi in hope of securing more pressure on the North, which counts on China for up to 90 percent of its trade.
Trump also has flexed USA military muscle, though with little apparent effect in deterring North Korean leader Kim Jong Un from his rapid tempo of weapons tests.
The missile was launched on an unusually high trajectory, before splashing down in the Sea of Japan (East Sea). The US said it terminated flight just 96 kilometers (60 miles) from the Russian port city of Vladivostock, whereas the Russian Defense Ministry said it landed 500 kilometers (311 miles) from its Pacific coast line.
Last month, Russian Federation and China backed a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning a previous missile launch, demanding that it "immediately" cease further actions that violate resolutions. It could have a range of 4,500 kilometers (about 2,800 miles), putting the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam easily within range. In a show of force, the United States sent an aircraft carrier strike group, led by the USS Carl Vinson, to waters off the Korean peninsula to conduct drills with South Korea and Japan.
France's United Nations ambassador says Security Council members are working on a resolution that would impose new sanctions against North Korea and strengthen enforcement of existing sanctions.
And on Monday, the regime's state-run Korean Central News Agency officially declared the test a "success", saying the US mainland is now within the missile's striking range. They've failed to stop the North's progress, which includes five nuclear test explosions since 2006. Alternatively, the council could choose instead to issue a condemnatory statement.
Kim said North Korea would stage more nuclear and missile tests in order to flawless nuclear bombs needed to deal with United States "nuclear blackmail".
The North also experimented with a heavier warhead and may have also tested a re-entry vehicle, according to North Korean media reports. Primary targets would be banks and companies inside China, posing a dilemma for the Trump administration.
Meanwhile, the U.S.is studying possible sanctions against global companies that help the North evade restrictions - a step strongly supported in Congress. China won't be "strong-armed" into acting against its own interests, he said.
