‘Self-Restraint’ Is Only Thing Stopping War in Korea, U.S. General Says
By CHOE SANG-HUNJULY 5, 2017
SEOUL, South Korea — The top American general in South Korea said Wednesday
that self-restraint was all that kept the United States and South Korea from going to war with North Korea, as the South’s defense minister indicated that the North’s first intercontinental ballistic missile had the potential to reach Hawaii.
Although doubt remained whether North Korea had cleared all the technical hurdles to make the Hwasong-14 a fully functional ICBM, the launching prompted the United States
and South Korea to conduct a rare joint missile exercise off the east coast of South Korea on Wednesday.
Its leader, Kim Jong-un, said Wednesday that the missile test was intended to "slap the American bastards in their face" and was a Fourth of July "gift package" for the "Yankees." The North Korean missile, launched at a steep angle, flew a horizontal distance of only 578 miles
but reached an altitude of more than 1,700 miles, according to North Korean, South Korean and Japanese officials.
But Mr. Han said although the Hwasong-14 was developed as an intercontinental missile, it was still too early to conclude whether North Korea had mastered long-range missile technology, especially the re-entry capability
that allows an ICBM warhead to survive the intense heat and destruction of its outer shell as it plunges from space through the earth’s atmosphere.
North Korea also said its missile was capable of carrying a "large-sized heavy nuclear warhead." Some analysts say
that North Korea is probably still years away from developing nuclear warhead small and light enough to fit into a long-range rocket that could reach the continental United States.
But the missile was launched from a platform, indicating
that the country had not developed the ability to launch the missile directly from the vehicle, South Korean officials said.
