US to urge tougher sanctions after North Korea fires likely ICBM

The launch came just hours after US President Joe Biden left Asia following a trip overshadowed by Pyongyang's sabre-rattling.His warning adds to the drumbeat of predictions from US and South Korean officials, who have been saying for weeks that Kim's regime is close to conducting its seventh nuclear test.Washington plans to call for a UN Security Council vote on tougher sanctions on Pyongyang after the tests, a senior US official said. "That was a provision of that resolution. That's precisely what happened and so we feel it's now time to take action," the official said on condition of anonymity.The three early-morning ballistic missile launches came within an hour of each other, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.This could have been North Korea's largest ICBM, the Hwasong-17, Kim Tae-hyo said later.- Response to Biden -The latest apparent test come just days after Biden left South Korea Sunday.During Biden's visit, Seoul and Washington announced they would look at ramping up joint military exercises, which had been scaled back for Covid-19 and during a bout of failed diplomacy with the North."North Korea's objections against these announcements was expressed through the missile launches," Park said.- Covid and missiles -"But this also looks like a statement that the Kim regime has many different ways of striking an adversary."Despite struggling with a recent Covid-19 outbreak, the North has resumed construction at a long-dormant nuclear reactor, new satellite imagery has indicated.More than 3.1 million people have been sick with "fever", North Korean state media said early Thursday, with 68 deaths since the outbreak began in late April."It shows Pyongyang's intent to achieve two objectives simultaneously: overcoming the outbreak and enhancing its nuclear arsenal," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies. sh-kjk-cdl/ceb/caw/sst... Via news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site https://www.news.com.au