SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch Saturday, South Korea and the United States said, the third test-fire flop just this month but a clear message of defiance as a U.S. supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters.

North Korean ballistic missile tests are banned by the United Nations because they're seen as part of the North's push for a nuclear-tipped missile that can hit the U.S. mainland. The latest test came as U.S. officials pivoted from a hard line to diplomacy at the U.N. in an effort to address what may be Washington's most pressing foreign policy challenge.

President Donald Trump said on Twitter, "North Korea disrespected the wishes of China & its highly respected President when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad!" He did not answer reporters' questions about the missile launch upon returning to the White House from a day trip to Atlanta.

North Korea didn't immediately comment on the launch, though its state media on Saturday reiterated the country's goal of being able to strike the continental U.S.

The timing of the North's test was striking: Only hours earlier the U.N. Security Council held a ministerial meeting on Pyongyang's escalating weapons program. North Korean officials boycotted the meeting, which was chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the missile flew for several minutes and reached a maximum height of 71 kilometers (44 miles) before it apparently failed.

It didn't immediately provide an estimate on how far the missile flew, but a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said it was likely a medium-range KN-17 ballistic missile. It broke up a few minutes after the launch.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, speaking after a meeting of Japan's National Security Council, said the missile is believed to have traveled about 50 kilometers (30 miles) and fallen on an inland part of North Korea.

Analysts say the KN-17 is a new Scud-type missile developed by North Korea. The North fired the same type of missile April 16, just a day after a massive military parade where it showed off its expanding missile arsenal, but U.S. officials called that launch a failure.

Some analysts say a missile the North test fired April 5, which U.S. officials identified as a Scud variant, also might have been a KN-17. U.S. officials said that missile spun out of control and crashed into the sea.

Moon Seong Mook, a South Korean analyst and former military official, says that the North would gain valuable knowledge even from failed launches as it continues to improve its technologies for missiles. The South Korean and Japanese assessments about Saturday's launch indicate that the North fired the missile from a higher-than-normal angle to prevent it from flying too far, he said.

"They could be testing a variety of things, such as the thrust of the rocket engine or the separation of stages," Moon said. "A failure is a failure, but that doesn't mean the launch was meaningless."

The two earlier launches were conducted from an eastern coastal area, but the missile Saturday was fired in the west, from an area near Pukchang, just north of the capital, Pyongyang.

South Korea's Foreign Ministry denounced the launch as an "obvious" violation of United Nations resolutions and the latest display of North Korea's "belligerence and recklessness."

"We sternly warn that the North Korean government will continue to face a variety of strong punitive measures issued by the U.N. Security Council and others if it continues to reject denuclearization and play with fire in front of the world," the ministry said.

The North routinely test-fires a variety of ballistic missiles, despite U.N. prohibitions, as part of its weapons development. While shorter-range missiles are somewhat routine, there is strong outside worry about each longer-range North Korean ballistic test.

Saturday's launch comes at a point of particularly high tension. Trump has sent a nuclear-powered submarine and the USS Carl Vinson aircraft supercarrier to Korean waters, and North Korea this week conducted large-scale, live-fire exercises on its eastern coast. The U.S. and South Korea also started installing a missile defense system that is supposed to be partially operational within days.

A US warship is heading towards North Korea after Kim Jong Un carried out yet another failed missile launch.

The USS Carl Vinson, US super aircraft carrier, was spotted sailing north offshore Nagasaki, Japan on Saturday local time, in a show of force after North Korea's latest test-fire flop.

A US official said the ballistic missile, thought to be a mid-range KN-17, was fired from a location in the South Pyeongan province in the early hours of Saturday morning local time. It blew up over land before it ever reached its target of the Sea of Japan, landing around 22 miles from Pukchang airfield, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

It flew for several minutes and reached a maximum height of 44 miles before it apparently failed.

The launch comes just hours after the country announced it was 'on the brink of nuclear war' as the United States stages military drills with South Korea.

So far, there has been no comment on the failed test-fire from North Korea. But the failure would be a huge embarrassment to leader Kim Jong-un who has a history of humiliating military misfires.

President Donald Trump has responded saying that North Korea had 'disrespected the wishes of China' with the missile test.

Scroll down for video

The USS Carl Vinson is heading towards North Korea after Kim Jong Un carried out yet another failed missile launch

The Nimitz-class U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson sails offshore Nagasaki prefecture, southern Japan, heading north in this aerial view photo taken by Kyodo April 29

North Korea has carried out yet another failed missile launch, according to the Pentagon. Pictured, a file photo released on 24 April 2016 by North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows an 'underwater test-fire of strategic submarine ballistic missile in North Korea

A PAC-3 Patriot missile unit is deployed against the North Korea's missile firing at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo, Saturday, April 29, after the test fire

The launch comes just hours after the country announced it was 'on the brink of nuclear war'. Pictured above, North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un

The reported launch hours came after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on China, and the rest of the world, to help force the dictator-led country to give up its nuclear weapons, during his address to the UN Security Council.

Earlier this week, Jong-un's army showed they were ready for war as they fired rockets and torpedoes at mock enemy warships during North Korea's 'largest ever' live-fire artillery drills on Tuesday.

Hundreds of tanks were lined up along the eastern coastal town of Wonsan in a show of military strength to celebrate 85 years since the North Korean army was created. Then on Wednesday, South Korea conducted joint military live-fire drills with the US at Seungjin fire training field in Pocheon, South Korea, near the border with North Korea.

Today's action by Jong un is only likely to escalate the increasingly tense relations between the US and North Korea.

Earlier Friday, North Korea's KCNA state news agency blamed America for pushing the situation to 'the brink of nuclear war' while Jong unlabeled the United States a 'blackmailing gangster' holding North Korea at 'knifepoint' by supporting its enemies and imposing economic sanctions.

On Thursday, President Trump warned a 'major, major conflict' with North Korea was possible over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, while China said the situation on the Korean peninsula could escalate or slip out of control.

President Donald Trump has responded saying that North Korea had 'disrespected the wishes of China' with the missile test

President Donald Trump (pictured today stepping off Marine One at the White House) said he wants to resolve the crisis in North Korea peacefully but a military option was not off the table

Trump said he wanted to resolve the crisis peacefully, possibly through the use of new economic sanctions, although a military option was not off the table.

'There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea,' Trump said in an interview at the Oval Office.

'We'd love to solve things diplomatically but it's very difficult,' he said, describing North Korea as his biggest global challenge.'

Today's launch is thought to have been a more medium-range ballistic missile, the sold-fuel KN-17 fired from a mobile launcher, according to US officials. It broke up a couple minutes after the launch, and the pieces fell into the Sea of Japan.

Analysts say the KN-17 is a new Scud-type missile developed by North Korea. The North also test-fired the missile earlier this month; U.S. officials called that launch a failure.

North Korea routinely test-fires a variety of ballistic missiles, despite U.N. prohibitions, as part of its weapons development. While shorter-range missiles are somewhat routine, there is strong outside worry about each longer-range North Korean ballistic test.

US supercarrier, the USS Carl Vinson, is heading towards North Korean shores to conduct drills in nearby waters as an act of defiance after the country's missile testing

The efforts are the latest in long line of failed missile launches by North Korea - at least nine since Trump's inauguration in January.

Earlier this month, the country attempted to fire a missile, which had just been unveiled as a game-changer' intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) in a show of military might - only for the weapon to blow up four or five seconds after being launched.

The South Korean defense ministry said it had detected the failed launch from Sinpo - where North Korea's biggest submarine base is located. It was 'presumed to be a new ICBM' as it was longer than the existing KN-08 or KN-14 missiles.

Defense secretary James Mattis said Donald Trump was 'aware' of the launch which took place just as Vice President landed in South Korea ahead of his 10-day Asia tour.

North Korea had another failed missile launch in mid-March, when the missile exploded within seconds of being launched, US officials say.

North Korea is banned from any missile or nuclear launched by the United Nations but that has not stopped it carrying out repeated tests as it attempts to improve its nuclear technology.

Friday's launch, or Saturday local time, landed near Pukchang, just north of Pyongyang, which isn't far from where the North earlier this year tested new midrange solid-fuel missiles. The launch raised concerns because they could be quickly fired from land-based mobile launchers and are harder to detect before launch.

North Korea has also test-fired from inland a powerful liquid-fuel midrange missile, which outside experts call the Musudan and which has the potential to reach U.S. military bases in Guam.

Leader Kim Jong-Un saluted his military from the top of a private car as they drove through the demonstration

More than 300 large-calibre artillery pieces were fired in the drill on Wednesday, called a 'Combined Fire Demonstration'

The exercises involved submarine torpedo-attacks on mock enemy warships, causing huge explosion

It was not clear how far the ballistic missile traveled, but a US government source told Reuters the test-fire had failed. Pictured, an undated picture released by KCNA on March 7 showing the launch of four ballistic missiles

An undated file photo made available by the North Korean Central News Agency on 07 March 2017, that shows four projectiles during a ballistic rocket launching drill of Hwasong artillery units of the Strategic Force of the Korean People's Army (KPA) at an undisclosed location

North Korea, technically still at war with the South after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty, regularly threatens to destroy the United States and says it will pursue its nuclear and missile programs to counter perceived US aggression.

But tensions between the North and United States have recently escalated with both North and South Korea conducting military exercises.

Trump took an initial hard line with Pyongyang and sent a nuclear-powered submarine and the USS Carl Vinson aircraft supercarrier to Korean waters. His diplomats have since pivoted and are now taking a softer tone.

Meanwhile, North Korean state news agency blamed the US for the increasingly strained relationship, saying: 'By staging the largest-ever aggressive joint military drills against the DPRK for the past two months after bringing all sorts of nuclear strategic assets to south Korea.' DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The agency continued: 'No one in the world welcomes a gangster blackmailing the owner with a dagger.

The US has looked to China, North Korea's biggest ally to interject in the situation.

Before meeting Chinese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the beginning of the month, Trump said if China did not intervene in North Korea, the US would 'take care of it'.

But Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said this week there was a danger that the situation on the Korean peninsula could escalate or slip out of control.

On Friday the United States and China offered starkly different strategies for addressing North Korea's escalating nuclear threat as Trump's top diplomat demanded full enforcement of economic sanctions on Pyongyang and urged new penalties. Stepping back from suggestions of U. S. military action, he even offered aid to North Korea if it ends its nuclear weapons program.

Earlier this month, North Korea unveiled 'game-changer' ballistic missiles during a display of the country's military might. This launch was also a failure

Two of the missiles thought to be dubbed North Korea's 'game changing' weapons are paraded through Kim Il-Sung square on April 15. Those same missiles exploded within seconds of being launched

The range of Tillerson's suggestions, which over a span of 24 hours also included restarting negotiations, reflected America's failure to halt North Korea's nuclear advances despite decades of U.S.-led sanctions, military threats and stop-and-go rounds of diplomatic engagement. As the North approaches the capability to hit the U.S. mainland with a nuclear-tipped missile, the Trump administration feels it is running out of time.

Chairing a ministerial meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Friday, Tillerson declared that 'failing to act now on the most pressing security issue in the world may bring catastrophic consequences.'

Tillerson said all options 'must remain the table,' while emphasizing the need for diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea.

His ideas included a ban on North Korean coal imports and preventing its overseas guest laborers, a critical source of government revenue, from sending money home. And he warned of unilateral U.S. moves against international firms conducting banned businesses with Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs, which could ensnare banks in China, the North's primary trade partner.

'We must have full and complete compliance by every country,' Tillerson said.

Yet illustrating the international gulf over how best to tackle North Korea, several foreign ministers on the 15-member council expressed fears of a conflict on the Korean Peninsula, which was divided between the American-backed South and communist North even before the 1950-53 Korean War. The conflict ended with no formal peace treaty. And while danger always has lurked, tensions have escalated dramatically as the North's young leader, Kim Jong Un, has expanded a nuclear arsenal his government says is needed to avert a U.S. invasion.

No voice at Friday's session was more important than that of China, a conduit for 90 percent of North Korea's commerce and a country Trump is pinning hopes on for a peaceful resolution to the nuclear crisis. Trump, who recently hosted President Xi Jinping for a Florida summit, has sometimes praised the Chinese leader for a newfound cooperation to crack down on North Korea and sometimes threatened a go-it-alone U.S. approach if Xi fails to deliver.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China would adhere to past U.N. resolutions and wants a denuclearized peninsula. But he spelled out no further punitive steps his government might consider, despite Tillerson's assertions in an interview hours ahead of the council meeting that Beijing would impose sanctions of its own if North Korea conducts another nuclear test.

North Korea's ballistic missiles being displayed during a military parade in Pyongyang marking the 105th anniversary of the birth of late North Korean leader and the nation's founder Kim Il-Sung earlier this month

Wang put forward a familiar Chinese idea to ease tensions: North Korea suspending its nuclear and missile activities, if the U.S. and South Korea stop military exercises in the region. Washington and Seoul reject the idea.

Amid signs of a possible North Korean nuclear test, the U.S. recently sent a group of warships led by an aircraft carrier to waters off of the Korean Peninsula. North Korea this week conducted large-scale, live-fire exercises on its eastern coast. The U.S. and South Korea also started installing a missile defense system that is supposed to be partially operational within days.

Tillerson said the US does not seek regime change in North Korea, and he signaled American openness to holding direct negotiations with Pyongyang. The US also could resume aid to North Korea once it 'begins to dismantle its nuclear weapons and missile technology programs,' he said. Since 1995, he added, Washington has provided more than $1.3 billion to the impoverished country.

But the prospects for any more U.S. money going there appeared bleak. Even negotiations don't seem likely.

Tillerson said the North must take 'concrete steps' to reduce its weapons threat before talks could occur. Six-nation nuclear negotiations with North Korea stalled in 2008. The Obama administration sought to resurrect them in 2012, but a deal to provide food aid in exchange for a nuclear freeze soon collapsed.

'In a nutshell, (North Korea) has already declared not to attend any type of talks which would discuss its nuclear abandonment, nuclear disbandment,' Kim In Ryong, North Korea's deputy U.N ambassador, told The Associated Press. His government declined to attend Friday's council meeting.

The intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), which Pyongyang claim could travel thousands of miles, have increased concerns that the secretive state is preparing for a possible attack on Washington after they were paraded during the country's Day of the Sun celebrations on April 15.

The two new kinds of ICBM were enclosed in canister launchers mounted on the back of transporter erector launcher trucks as they were paraded in front of crowds during today's festivities.

Pyongyang has yet to formally announce it has an operational ICBM but experts believe they the new rockets could be liquid-fuelled intercontinental ballistic missiles, or an early prototype.

Submarine-launched ballistic missiles were also among the military hardware on show for the first time.

Trump’s Phony World War III
April 28, 2017 at 11:13 am

Written by Darius Shahtahmasebi

(ANTIMEDIA Op-Ed) In April 7, 2017, much of the world watched in horror as the Trump administration rained missiles down on an airbase that belonged to the sovereign government of Syria. This was an action we managed to avoid in 2013 when the Obama administration gave us time to voice our opposition (before bombing the country the following year, anyway). Back then, we understood the dangerous implications of going to war with a government over unproven claims of chemical weapons attacks, especially a government heavily backed by Russia, Iran, and to some extent, China.

But to the dismay of many, Trump did what he said multiple times in the past should never be done, and it didn’t take long for this development to blow over into nothingness. No one is talking about the attack anymore.

How can that be?

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, only 23 of the 59 missiles launched actually hit the Syrian airbase in what Russia perceived to be an inefficient strike. In fact, it was so ineffective that barely a day later, the airbase was back in action, deploying warplanes to bomb rebel positions in the Homs countryside.

Further, the U.S. actually gave Russia – Syria’s staunchest backer – prior notice of the strike before it was launched. Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said in a statement that the so-called “deconfliction” channel set up by Russia and the U.S. in Syria was used to disclose the strike to the Russian side.

“U.S. military planners took precautions to minimize risk to Russian or Syrian personnel located at the airfield,” Davis said.

According to Davis, the strikes were not aimed at Syrian personnel but the “aircraft and support infrastructure” to hinder Syrian regime’s ability to deliver chemical weapons. However, if this was the case, then the U.S. was literally bombing the very equipment (read: evidence) required to carry out an impartial investigation into any alleged attack committed by pro-government forces.

Further, as the Intercept notes:

“Although at least six Syrian airmen died in the attack, according to a Syrian military spokesman, it seems inconceivable that the Russian military personnel fleeing the base would not have alerted their allies to what was coming.”

Even if the strike was intended to hit only the infrastructure, there are two things worth noting. First, the strike didn’t damage anything of value to the Syrian government, which is unusual given the far-reaching capabilities of the U.S. military (meaning it’s possible this inefficiency was intentional). Second, the warning to Russia could have given the Syrian army ample time to move and relocate some equipment they wanted to protect anyway, putting it out of range of the strike.

To add even further, Russia wasn’t the only country warned about the strike. Considering even small, supposedly peaceful countries like New Zealand were also warned in advance, it is increasingly apparent that the strike was not the secretive, strategic blow to Assad we had expected to be on the table. In response to another Twitter user, Trump once infamously tweeted:

“I would not go into Syria, but if I did it would be by surprise and not blurted all over the media like fools.”

He wouldn’t blurt it all over the media, sure — just to Syria’s closest allies and every single ally of the U.S. led coalition.

So what was the point of the strike? (That is a topic for a separate article, but Trump’s surge inpopularity within the mainstream media that so frequently denounced him previously speaks for itself.)

Regardless, not long after, our worst fears of a global conflict were increasingly heightened, but discussion of Syria barely received a mention (even though the strike led the International Committee of the Red Cross to believe that the U.S. and Syria are now officially in an “international armed conflict”). This time, the focus is on North Korea, and to some extent, North Korean ally China, whom the Trump administration has tasked with containing the Kim Jong-Un regime.

The world began to panic as it was announced that the U.S. military sent its naval strike force directly to the Korean peninsula. The deployment ran in tandem with Trump’s tweet that “North Korea is looking for trouble” and further threats of war from other government officials.

In response, North Korea’s ally, China, reportedly sent a whopping 150,000 troops to the Korean border. Not long after, reports began to surface that Russia was also sending troops and other military equipment to the region, as well.

Yet Trump’s naval fleet was actually sailing in the wrong direction. It wasn’t headed for the Korean peninsula at all, but was, in fact, heading to Australia, as was previously thought to be the case. Asnoted by the Corbett Report, the media was one hundred percent complicit in driving this fake narrative.

On top of this, Russia and China both denied they were preparing for war in Korea. The Chinese Defense Ministry issued a statement saying its forces were at a normal state of preparedness along its roughly 880-mile border with North Korea, according to Reuters. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying also dismissed the deployment of 150,000 Chinese troops as South Korean propaganda.

For their part, Russian authorities denied reports that they are moving troops to the border, as well.

Are we being lied to about the current escalation of wartime activities in the Middle East and Asia?

Are we being duped right now?

Following these recent developments, the focus has again switched to another adversary. The Trump administration apparently remembered that ultimately, the prize in the region is Iran, and consequently, has ramped up its anti-Iranian rhetoric once again.

Will we see a similar unfolding of events regarding empty provocations and actions — like the ones Trump demonstrated in Syria, for example — or will the U.S. genuinely be preparing for war in the Middle East and Asia?

This is not to downplay the seriousness of any of these activities. The act of striking a foreign government, whether or not prior warning is given, is a very serious act of aggression and should be rightly condemned as such. The statement by the Syrian government’s allies that they will respond with force the next time such an attack occurs is also a major cause for concern.

However, the fact remains that the government and the media are well aware of the effect that the ever-imminent war rhetoric has on the general population. By keeping us in a constant state of fear of panic and fear, they can get away with anything. In that context, the immediate endgame may not be a war in the Middle East or Asia, but a war to control us domestically.

By hyping up these fears, the media and respective governments on all sides of this equation know their populations will be much more docile, easier to control, and more susceptible to nationalism. Not to mention, many other stories will go unnoticed in the mass media while the whole world is fixated on this particular narrative. As observed by intellectual Noam Chomsky:

“I think the foreign policy is really not their concern. Like the Syria strike. I mean, it meant almost nothing. They hit an empty airbase. Within a day, it was functioning again. Planes were flying off it. It was for a domestic show, you know — ‘Show what a tough guy I am; I’m not Obama. And then go back to the “normal”’ — I think the real things that are happening are basically the Ryan budget and the Ryan legislative programs.” [emphasis added]

Chomsky added:

“All of that’s going on right under the cover of the Trump/Spicer media extravaganzas. Those guys do one thing after another to keep the media attention focused on them. And it works. Turn on CNN and that’s what you hear, and meanwhile, these legislative achievements are being made which are chipping away at anything the government has that’s of any use to anybody.”

This is where we cue the news that there is currently a secret CIA conference taking place in New Zealand this week between the so-called Five Eyes Network (the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Canada and New Zealand). This has received little media coverage in comparison to, say, North Korea.

The fear of a third global conflict has the anti-war activists among us working like madmen to discern what is really going on right now and where are we headed. That being said, behind the scenes, the powers-that-be may be using wartime activities as an excuse to pursue a different agenda altogether, which should not be disregarded.

As Anti-Media’s Jake Anderson astutely noted:

“A scared population is a controlled population, and right now the world is in lock-step, beholden to governments who seem determined to keep their defense contractors and militaries in business forever.”

Opinion / Creative Commons / Anti-Media / Report a typo / Image: DonkeyHotey