The latest missile tests by North Korea represent progress in the regime's military capabilities. The tests drew ire from nations set to sit across from North Korea at an informal diplomatic gathering in Beijing.
Image: picture alliance/Yonhap
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North Korea test fires two mid-range missiles
00:43
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North Korea's latest missile launches were conducted in the early hours of Wednesday morning, according to South Korea's Defense Ministry and the US Department of State.
The tests are believed to be of medium-range Musudan missiles. The range of Musudan missiles is estimated to be between 2,500 to 4,000 kilometers (1,500 - 2,500 miles), but North Korea's missiles traveled far shorter distances. The first missile fell apart after traveling around 150 kilometers, but the second missile made it 400 kilometers. The theoretical range would mean a fully-operational missile would be able to strike South Korea, Japan and US military institutions on Guam.
Threat of further sanctions
While the missiles did not travel close to their maximum range, the launches represent significant progress for North Korea's ballistic missile program and their potential capability to conduct a nuclear missile launch. Four previous attempts to launch this kind of missile failed.
North Korea test fires two mid-range missiles
00:43
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The UN Security Council has measures in place prohibiting North Korea from conducting such tests.
"We intend to raise our concerns at the UN to bolster international resolve in holding (North Korea) accountable for these provocative actions," said US State Department spokesperson John Kirby.
Japanese media quoted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as saying the tests "cannot be tolerated," and South Korean officials are warning of tougher sanctions against North Korea, who had recently expressed willingness to hold military talks with their southern neighbors.
Informal gathering
The missile tests come on the same day as a meeting in Beijing that will bring together diplomats from North Korea, the United States, China, South Korea, Russia and Japan.
The same countries formed the core group pushing for North Korean nuclear disarmament in talks that stalled in 2008.
Wednesday's meeting in Beijing carries relatively low expectations. It is unlikely the US and North Korean diplomats will engage in any direct talks, and the entire summit is being held behind closed doors. The annual event, called the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue, is put on by the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation at the University of California, San Diego, which calls the meeting a "regular channel of informal communication among the six governments."
mz/kms (AP, AFP)
North Korea in pictures: a rare glimpse into the isolated country
A team of journalists explored North Korea for a week, accompanied by officials who monitored the images and ensured not a single citizen was interviewed. The secluded country opened up and revealed itself.
The reporters from AP covered over 2,150 kilometers (1,336 miles), in a country of barely 25,000 kilometers of roads, merely 724 of those paved. They came back with only their photos as evidence of the life in the northern part of the secluded country. In the picture: A woman walks along a road southeast of Pyongyang in North Korea's North Hwanghae province.
A North Korean man sits by a cooking fire he built to roast potatoes and chicken in the town of Samjiyon, in Ryanggang province. Possibly more than any other populated place on earth, North Korea is terra incognita, but the AP team was granted access to see North Korea and travel through places that, they were told, no foreign journalist and few foreigners had been allowed to see before.
A boulder lies on a path near the peak of Mount Paektu in North Korea's Ryanggang province. North Koreans venerate Mount Paektu for its natural beauty, but more importantly because it is considered the home of the North Korean revolution. They also consider the mountain sacred as the place of their ancestral origin.
Farmers walk in a rainstorm with their cattle near the town of Hyesan, North Korea in Ryanggang province. "To get out of Pyongyang, we weaved our way around buses, streetcars, the black sedans of party officials and fleets of colorful new taxis that have over the past few years become commonplace," says Eric Talmadge, one of the jourmalists who participated in the journey.
Young North Korean schoolchildren help to fix pot holes in a rural road in North Korea's North Hamgyong province. The country's best road is the 200-kilometer stretch of highway connecting the capital to the east coast port city of Wonsan. Beyond Wonsan, potholes, cracks or sudden patches of dirt road make travel a bumpy experience.
North Korean residents walk on along a river in the town of Kimchaek, in North Korea's North Hamgyong province. The once-productive cities along its east coast, like the coal mining town of Kilju and the nearby city of Kimchaek - built around a sprawling but now eerily quiet ironworks complex - have become a rust belt, gritty and relentlessly gray.
The remains of lunch left on a restaurant table in the city of Wonsan, North Korea. The government "minders" accompanied the journalists throughout the entire trip. Like foreign tourists, the AP team only saw a bare trace of the deprivation residents experience. Most of the country's citizens cannot afford proper housing, let alone a visit to a restaurant.
The journalists' itineary was dictated by North Korea's terms. There would be no stopping to interview random people. "It's quite possible none of them had ever seen an American before," said AP's Eric Talmadge, "but our presence went unacknowledged. No glances were exchanged. No words were spoken." Here boys are playing soccer in the town of Hyesan, in the northern Ryanggang province.
North Korean men share a picnic lunch and North Korean-brewed and bottled Taedonggang beer along the road in North Korea's North Hwanghae province. This year, according to United Nations experts, the country could come closer to feeding itself than it has in decades. But hunger remains a serious problem, with a third of North Korean children stunted in growth due to poor nutrition.
A farmer carries a fully grown cabbage after harvesting it from the main crop which will be harvested early November, on the outskirts of Pyongyang. About four-fifths of North Korea's land is too rugged to farm. Providing enough food to feed the nation is a struggle for North Korea, which suffered a near cataclysmic famine in the 1990s.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Wong Maye-E
No detour allowed
A man works on his car as others sit next to the Wonsan Sea in North Korea. For the most part, AP's reporters were not allowed to detour from their pre-approved route, which, to no one's surprise, did not include nuclear facilities or prison camps.
A group of young North Koreans enjoys a picnic on the beach in Wonsan. "Even on the loneliest of lonely highways, we would never be without a 'minder,' whose job was to monitor and supervise our activities," Talmadge explains. "We were not to take photographs of any checkpoints or military installations."
North Korean people rest next to the railroad tracks in a town in North Korea's North Hamgyong province. "Though we would not get to know the people along the way, the country itself had a great deal to say. And it was opening up before us," Talmadge said upon his return. "We had been granted unprecedented access."