US envoy Haley warns latest DPRK launch brings world closer to war

NORTH Korea released video Thursday of leader Kim Jong Un observing the launch of the regime’s new intercontinental ballistic missile.

The Hwasong-15 blasted off Wednesday morning from a test facility north of the capital, Pyongyang. The new missile reached an altitude of 4,500 kilometers – more than 10 times higher than the orbit of the International Space Station – and traveled about 1,000 kilometers before splashing down into Japan’s exclusive economic zone east of the Korean peninsula.

Kim Jong Un declared the launch a success, boasting the regime has “finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force.” Scientists say the Hwasong-15 missile has enough range to strike the continental United States but says such a missile would be unable to carry a nuclear warhead because it would be too heavy.

Analysts are also unconvinced that the North has mastered the technology ensuring the missile survives the difficult re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

“We have never sought war with North Korea and still today we do not seek it,” Haley told an emergency meeting of the UN

Security Council. But she warned that if there is war, it will be because of continued acts of aggression like the missile launch.

“And if war comes, make no mistake, the North Korean regime will be utterly destroyed,” she added.

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She also called on UN member states to cut ties with Pyongyang. “All countries should sever diplomatic relations with North Korea and limit military, scientific, technical or commercial cooperation,” she said.

Haley said President Donald Trump told his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in a phone call earlier in the day that the time has come for Beijing to cut off all oil exports to North Korea.

“In 2003, China actually stopped the oil to North Korea; soon after, North Korea came to the [negotiating] table,” Haley said