North Korea Test-fires Another Ballistic Missile

- An image made from video of a news bulletin aired by North Korea's KRT on May 22, 2017, shows what was said to be the test-launch of a Pukguksong-2 missile at an undisclosed location in North Korea.

North Korea test-fired another short-range ballistic missile early Monday, just days after the G-7 demanded that Pyongyang give up its nuclear ambitions.
The U.S. Pacific Command says the launch came near the town of Wonsan on North Korea’s east coast. The command tracked the missile for six minutes before it fell into the Sea of Japan, in what is known as Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
The command says the missile posed no threat to North America. But an angry Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to respond.

“Working with the United States, we will take specific action to deter North Korea,” Abe said on Japanese television.
This was North Korea’s second missile test in a week, coming even after the U.N. threatened more sanctions and G-7 leaders condemned the North.
North Korea apparently is determined to develop a missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon and able to reach the U.S. mainland. But it is nearly impossible to know how much progress it has made towards that goal.
The Trump administration, while serving up strong words against the North and its leader Kim Jong Un, has yet to come out with a firm policy on how to react to Pyongyang.
U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis, however, warned on a Sunday morning television news program that if a diplomatic solution cannot be found for the situation with North Korea “it would be a catastrophic war if this turns into a combat.”

“The North Korean regime has hundreds of artillery cannons and rocket launchers within range of one of the most densely populated cities on Earth, which is the capital of South Korea,” Mattis told Face the Nation. “This regime is a threat to the region, to Japan, to South Korea, and in the event of war, they would bring danger to China and to Russia, as well.”
The secretary said conflict with North Korea would be “probably the worst kind of fighting in most people’s lifetimes.”
This was North Korea’s second missile test in a week, coming after the U.N. threatened more sanctions and G-7 leaders condemned the North for its previous launch.
North Korea apparently is determined to develop a missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon and able to reach the U.S. mainland. But it is nearly impossible to know how much progress it has made towards that goal.
Along with the threat of more sanctions, the U.S. has sent a naval force off the Korean peninsula and held joint military exercises with South Korea as warnings.