Tillerson slams North Korea’s latest missile launch

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson late Thursday slammed North Korea’s latest launch of a ballistic missile over Japan.

Tillerson noted that “North Korea’s provocative missile launch represents the second time the people of Japan, a treaty ally of the United States, have been directly threatened in recent weeks.”

“These continued provocations only deepen North Korea’s diplomatic and economic isolation,” Tillerson said in a statement.

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North Korea fired a missile from Pyongyang that flew for about 2,300 miles over northern Japan before crashing into the Pacific Ocean about 1,200 miles east of Hokkaido, according to South Korean and Japanese officials.

U.S. Pacific Command confirmed that an initial assessment indicated North Korea launched an intermediate range ballistic missile, while the White House said that President Trump had been briefed on the launch.

The Trump administration has been pushing for increased international pressure on North Korea after the isolated government conducted its sixth nuclear test earlier this month, prompting fresh international sanctions. 

Tillerson said Thursday that fresh sanctions on North Korea from the United Nations Security Council this week “represent the floor, not the ceiling, of the actions we should take.”

“We call on all nations to take new measures against the Kim regime,” he said.

“China supplies North Korea with most of its oil. Russia is the largest employer of North Korean forced labor,” he continued.

“China and Russia must indicate their intolerance for these reckless missile launches by taking direct actions of their own.”