Images show North Korea missile launch as Kim Jong Un tests Trump
Satellite images shows short-range missiles fired by North Korea as Mike Pompeo insists there is a ‘path forward’ to avoid a diplomatic breakdown with the U.S.
- Satellite images shows the smoke trail of a short-range ballistic missile Sea launched into the sea by North Korea on Saturday
- North Korea said leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a rocket and guided weapons test
- The tests are a sign of Pyongyang’s frustration over stalled talks with the U.S.
- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the U.S. still sees ‘a path forward’
- Trump shrugged off the importance of the tests, tweeting that Kim ‘knows that I am with him & does not want to break his promise to me. Deal will happen’
Satellite images shows the smoke trail of a short-range ballistic missile Sea launched into the sea by North Korea on Saturday.
The test came just hours after US President Donald Trump said he still has faith in de-nuclearization negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, even after the country fired a barrage of projectiles into the sea – and said he ‘won’t break his promises’.
It was also a day after South Korea expressed concern that such launches were a violation of an inter-Korean agreement to cease all hostile acts.
Satellite images shows the smoke trail, (pictured), of a short-range ballistic missile Sea launched into the sea by North Korea on Saturday
The test came just hours after US President Donald Trump, (left), said he still has faith in de-nuclearization negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, (right)
A US official told CNN that an early analysis says the launches appear to have been both MLRS (multiple launch rocket systems) and a possible short range ballistic missile.
North Korea’s state media said that leader Kim Jong Un had overseen a rocket and tactical guided weapons test, after the drill raised concerns Pyongyang was escalating provocations with US nuclear negotiations deadlocked.
The tests have been seen as a sign of Pyongyang’s frustration over the stalled talks, aimed at providing the North with desperately needed sanctions relief in exchange for its nuclear disarmament.
The launch follows a warm meeting between Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin less than two weeks ago and likely signals more tests to come, according to Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute.
He told CNN: ‘The location of the launch, the thick, smoky appearance of the exhaust and the fact that there is only one rocket trail all suggest this was the short-range ballistic missile that North Korea showed in its propaganda.’
Lewis said the North Koreans began firing a barrage of short-range projectiles at approximately 9.06 am on Saturday.
North Korea’s state media said that leader Kim Jong Un had overseen a rocket and tactical guided weapons test. Pictured is a satellite image taken just after the missile was launched
The Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey provided CNN with two images of the smoke trail
Around an hour later, Pyongyang fired another projectile. The image of that launch and the smoky plume it trailed in its wake was caught by Planet Labs, which works with the Middlebury Institute.
‘This is a one in a million shot,’ Lewis told CNN. The missile ‘was fired right about this time’, adding that the image would have been captured ‘within a few seconds, maybe a few minutes.’
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that the US still sees ‘a path forward’ in its nuclear talks with North Korea, even after Pyongyang’s latest round of test launches.
‘It’s a serious situation for sure and we’ve known that the path to fully verified denuclearization would be a bumpy and long one,’ he said on ABC’s This Week. But, he added: ‘We still believe there’s a path forward.’
A photo provided on Sunday by the North Korean government shows a test of weapon systems. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event
A US official told CNN that an early analysis says the launches appear to have been both MLRS (multiple launch rocket systems) and a possible short range ballistic missile
Pompeo told “This Week” that the rockets fired Saturday were relatively short range, had crossed no international boundary, had landed in waters east of North Korea “and didn’t present a threat to the United States or to South Korea or Japan.”
He said US military experts were continuing to study the tests, but he was careful not to say whether it might violate agreements reached since US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met in Singapore in 2018.
On Saturday, Trump had seemed to shrug off the importance of the tests, tweeting that Kim ‘knows that I am with him & does not want to break his promise to me. Deal will happen.’
The two sides have generally been at loggerheads since the collapse in February of a follow-up summit between Trump and Kim in Hanoi.
DonaldTrump had seemed to shrug off the importance of the tests, tweeting that Kim ‘knows that I am with him & does not want to break his promise to me. Deal will happen’
The launch follows a warm meeting between Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin, (right), less than two weeks ago and likely signals more tests to come
But Pompeo appeared on Sunday to strive for a conciliatory tone.
‘We still believe that there’s an opportunity to get a negotiated outcome where we get fully verified denuclearization,’ he said. ‘We want to get back to the table.’
Pompeo played down the harsh language leveled at him recently by a North Korean foreign ministry official who said Pompeo had made ‘reckless and dangerous’ remarks.
He claimed that he hoped the North hoped the US side would appoint a ‘more careful and mature’ negotiator.
‘The president gets to choose who his negotiators are, he is leading the effort, Pompeo said with a smile.
Kim was said to be deeply frustrated by the failure of the Hanoi summit. An ABC interviewer asked Pompeo about unconfirmed reports that four of the North’s foreign ministry officials had subsequently been executed.
Pompeo did not confirm the reports, saying however: “It does appear the next time we have serious negotiations my counterpart will be someone else.”
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