Seoul/United Nations — The UN condemned North Korea’s "outrageous" firing of a ballistic missile over Japan, demanding that the isolated country halts its weapons programme, but holding back on any threat of new sanctions. North Korea said the launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile on Tuesday was to counter US and South Korean military drills and was a first step in military action in the Pacific to "contain" the US territory of Guam. The leader of the North, Kim Jong-un, ordered the launch to be conducted for the first time from its capital, Pyongyang, and said that more exercises with the Pacific as the target were needed, the North’s KCNA news agency said on Wednesday. "The current ballistic rocket launching drill like a real war is the first step of the military operation of the KPA [Korean People’s Army] in the Pacific and a meaningful prelude to containing Guam," KCNA quoted Kim as saying. North Korea threatened in August to fire four missiles into the sea near Guam...
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