Russia sends a message to Trump by nixing a U.N. resolution.
President Trump meets with Vladimir Putin on Friday, and the Russian strongman sent his early regards on Thursday by nixing a U.S. resolution at the U.N. Security Council condemning North Korea’s latest missile launch. The resolution didn’t stipulate any action, but our friends the Russians still objected.
The Kremlin excuse is that the draft U.S. statement referred to the rocket as an intercontinental ballistic missile. Never mind that North Korea claims the missile was the equivalent of an ICBM, and the U.S. and other analysis of the trajectory and altitude suggest the same.
“The rationale [for Russia’s rejection] is that based on our (Ministry of Defense’s) assessment we cannot confirm that the missile can be classified as an ICBM,” Russia’s U.N. mission said in an email to other Security Council members. “Therefore we are not in a position to agree to this classification on behalf of the whole council since there is no consensus on this issue.”
North Korea Missile Test Appears to Tiptoe Over a U.S. Tripwire
Instead of going for distance, he has stepped up the testing of missiles that fly high into space — on Sunday, one reached a height of more than 1,300 miles — and then plunge down through the atmosphere, mimicking the kind of fiery re-entries a nuclear warhead would undergo if fired over a much longer distance.
.. “They can simulate an ICBM warhead on this kind of trajectory,”
.. Analysts said Sunday’s test flight, if conducted on a normal rather than a high trajectory, would have traveled about 3,000 miles. That is well beyond the sprawling American base at Guam, some 2,200 miles away.
.. In political signaling, he added, what the North’s test is telling the West is: “Hey, we’re on our way. If you want to talk, now’s the time to do it.”
North Korea Parades New Long-Range ‘Frankenmissile’
Pyongyang displays military hardware, including apparently new intercontinental ballistic missile
The U.S. believes North Korea’s first five tests have been plutonium bombs. But if uranium is used in the next test, it could suggest the North has a much larger arsenal than initially believed. Current estimates are that the country has between 20 and 40 atomic weapons.
.. North Korea has also said it’s seeking to develop hydrogen bombs
.. The North also paraded two missile canisters that hadn’t been seen before and which appeared to be able to accommodate larger missiles than the North has ever displayed publicly. While the canisters may not contain missiles, experts said the display indicated the North’s intentions to build larger ICBMs.
.. “A lot of this may be intimidation or bluffing, but it’s potentially a sign of things to come,”
.. North Korea also paraded a submarine-launched ballistic missile
.. The march came a day after Beijing urged the U.S. and North Korea to tone down their rhetoric, saying no one would win if there was a war.
Report: Israel Passes U.S. Military Technology to China
Secret U.S. missile and electro-optics technology was transferred to China recently by Israel, prompting anger from the U.S. and causing a senior Israeli defense official to resign.
.. Israel has a long record of getting U.S. military technology to China.
In the early 1990s then-CIA Director James Woolsey told a Senate Government Affairs Committee that Israel had been selling U.S. secrets to China for about a decade. More than 12 years ago the U.S. demanded Israel cancel a contract to supply China with Python III missiles, which included technology developed by the U.S. for its Sidewinder missiles, The Associated Press reported in 2002.