Washington: President Trump said that "all options are on the table" following North Korea's latest missile launch early Tuesday, this one fired over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean in the most brazen provocation of Kim Jong Un's five-year-long rule.
"The world has received North Korea's latest message loud and clear: This regime has signaled its contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior," Trump said on Tuesday morning in a statement.
"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."
Despite the grave warning, Trump's statement was notably measured in contrast to his response to previous tests of ballistic missile launches by North Korea. After a recent spate, he promised "fire and fury" if the isolated nation continued to provoke the United States. Trump also said earlier this month that he would make Kim "truly regret" harming the United States or its allies.
As he walked from the White House to Marine One, en route to survey hurricane damage in Texas, Trump paused briefly to answer a reporter's question about what he plans to do about North Korea. "We'll see, we'll see," he said. Trump's statement came more than 12 hours after White House aides had signaled a statement by the president was in the works.
The Japanese prime minister's office said Shinzo Abe and Trump talked by phone for 40 minutes after the launch, agreeing that they should increase pressure on North Korea.
The missile appears to have been a Hwasong-12, the intermediate-range ballistic missile technically capable of flying 3,000 miles that North Korea has been threatening to launch toward the US territory of Guam.But North Korea launched Tuesday's missile to the east, over Hokkaido and into the Pacific rather than on a southward path toward Guam, apparently to test its flight on a normal trajectory without crossing a "red line" of aiming at the United States.
Still, this launch, coming after North Korea last month launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles theoretically capable of reaching the US mainland, underscore both Kim's defiance of the international community and his determination to press ahead with his missile program.
Kim has now ordered the launch of 18 missiles this year alone, compared with the 16 missiles his father, Kim Jong Il, fired during 17 years in power.
The UN Security Council confirmed that it would hold an emergency meeting in New York on Tuesday to discuss the latest provocation.