Senior US defense officials voiced concern about North Korea’s nuclear ambitions on Friday, as they toured US missile defense sites a day after watching the military test-fire its second intercontinental ballistic missile in a week.
US Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work and Admiral Cecil Haney, combat commander of US nuclear forces, said they were confident US missile defenses could counter the nuclear threat from Pyongyang despite a mixed record of success in testing.
“I think when you look at what it’s designed for, and that’s a North Korean type problem, I think [I have] a very high confidence that we would have the capability,” Haney said after visiting a nondescript metal building where workers assemble the ground-based interceptor at the heart of the defense system.
Their remarks were a second day of messaging North Korea about its nuclear ambitions. Work said the test-firing of the unarmed Minuteman III missile on Thursday night was aimed at demonstrating the reliability of US nuclear arms to potential nuclear rivals, like Russia and North Korea.
The tour of missile defense facilities was another signal to Pyongyang, which recently detonated an underground nuclear device and tested a rocket in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.
“North Korea as a whole [is] very, very problematic in terms of their thirst to have a nuclear capability,” Haney told reporters, citing Pyongyang’s indifference to UN Security Council resolutions and its provocative attacks on South Korea.
The US currently has 30 ground-based interceptor missiles to target and destroy nuclear ballistic missiles while they are still in space. Four of the interceptors are at Vandenberg, California and the rest at Fort Greely, Alaska.
The US military is building another 14 interceptors at a cost of nearly US$1 billion to be installed at Fort Greely by the end of next year, fulfilling a pledge by former US defense secretary Chuck Hagel in 2013 after Pyongyang threatened a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the US.
The deputy secretary said on Friday the ICBM test-shot late on Thursday was viewed as a success because of its proximity to the target near Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific. The military does not generally disclose how close the missile lands to its target.
Work said it was the eighth consecutive successful test of a Minuteman III and the 27th consecutive successful missile test in the nuclear force, including air-launched cruise missiles and submarine-launched missiles.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was