published Apr 4th 2017, 7:18 pm, by Kanga Kong

(Bloomberg) —
North Korea conducted another ballistic missile test, shortly before the first meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump.

The projectile was fired into the East Sea early Wednesday and flew about 60 kilometers (37 miles), South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said in a text message. Japan strongly protested the launch, which fell short of its exclusive economic zone, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in Tokyo.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement that the U.S. has spoken enough on North Korea and would have no further comment. In March he said that all options, including military, are on the table to counter the regime. North Korea is expected to feature in talks between Trump and Xi in Florida on April 6-7.

Kim Jong Un’s regime has defied United Nations sanctions in an attempt to build a missile that could deliver a miniaturized nuclear weapon to North America. He has launched dozens of projectiles and conducted three nuclear tests since he came to power after his father’s death in 2011, and claimed in January to be in the final stages of preparations to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Initial assessments indicate that the latest device was a KN-15 medium-range ballistic missile launched from a land-based facility near Sinpo, northeast of Pyongyang, the U.S. Pacific Command said. It didn’t pose a threat to North America, it said in a statement.

Nuclear Test

South Korean intelligence warned in late March that North Korea could potentially detonate a nuclear device in the first week of April to “overshadow” the U.S.-China summit.

On a trip to North Asia in March, Tillerson said 20 years of diplomatic efforts had failed to counter Pyongyang’s nuclear program and he didn’t rule out a preemptive strike against the regime. Trump vowed to act unilaterally to address the threat from Kim’s regime if China won’t, according to an interview published in the Financial Times this week.

China, North Korea’s closest ally and biggest trading partner, banned coal imports from the nation earlier this year. It has retaliated against South Korea over the deployment of a U.S. missile shield called the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or Thaad.

North Korea test-fired four missiles last month that reached as far as Japan’s exclusive economic zone. Kim’s regime also hailed the ground test of a high-thrust engine that it said was developed for its space program. Another missile test later in March was apparently unsuccessful.

A medium-range missile fired in February prompted a rebuke from Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who were meeting in Florida at the Mar-a-Lago resort, where the U.S. president will see Xi.

Updates with Japan and U.S. reactions in the second and third paragraphs.
–With assistance from Takashi Hirokawa and Jackie Edwards.To contact the reporter on this story: Kanga Kong in Seoul at kkong50@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rosalind Mathieson at rmathieson3@bloomberg.net ;Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net Russell Ward

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