Following another ballistic missile over Japan launched by the North on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said that the US government and its allies are now prepared to respond to North Korea. All options to counter Pyongyang are now on the table, the BBC reported.
The missile launched over Japan was considered a meaningful start to North Korea’s plan to containing Guam to the North’s state-run news agency KCNA. Kim Jong-un already made threats to the island in the past month. In addition, the missile launch was North Korea’s response to the joint military drills by the United States and South Korea.
The White House’s response to the North
In a statement released by the White House, President Donald Trump said that the latest missile launch by North Korea sent a reverberating message to the world. It showed the North’s contempt for the UN members. "Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime’s isolation in the region and among all nations of the world. All options are on the table," President Trump said.
The provocative incident on Tuesday could instigate war
As soon as the North Korea fired its ballistic missile across the northern region of Japan on Tuesday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advised his people to take cover and prepare for another possible launch. PM Abe addressed the entire Japanese nation that his government will defend its people by taking countermeasures.
Later, a North Korean envoy blamed the United States, referring to the joint military drills in the South, for pushing the Korean peninsula toward the brink of "an extreme level of explosion." Moreover, China made downright warnings that the launch has brought the tensions on the Korean peninsula to a ‘tipping point.'
During a briefing in Beijing, Hua Chunying, the spokesperson of China’s Foreign Ministry, said that the situation in the Korean peninsula has finally reached a tipping point and might escalate into a much bigger crisis.
The United Nations Security Council immediately held an emergency meeting to address the crisis. The ballistic missile launch by the North definitely undermined regional security and stability according to Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General.
BBC reports that the missile launch on Tuesday is seen by military officials from both sides as powerful enough and utterly destructive on a massive scale.
It potentially carries a nuclear warhead.
Sergei Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister of Russia, believed that the sanctions imposed by the UN on North Korea as well as the use of military force would go nowhere and will only lead to a catastrophic event. Ryabkov called on North Korea’s leader to cease its missile tests and on the United States and its allies to prevent the situation from turning into a cataclysm.
