The United Nations Security Council is calling an emergency meeting today (Wednesday) after the launches of seven missiles by North Korea in the past day. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says “it wasn’t much of a show” as all seven missiles went down shortly after takeoff in the Sea of Japan. Grassley calls each launch a “fizzle.”
Grassley says “It shouldn’t be a shock to us in the sense that they’ve launched something. They’ve been trying to get the world’s attention for a long period of time, not just the United States, but the world’s attention and sabre-rattling seems to be one way for North Korea to do it.”
Grassley, a Republican, says there was a surprise outcome to the missile testing, immediate action by the United Nations. Grassley says “The Security Council, and particularly China and Japan, are getting worked up over this enough that maybe it will stop their pussy-footing around, following the United States’ lead, on the Group of Six meeting on a regular basis to solve the North Korean problem.”
The White House calls the missiles launches a “provocation” but Grassley says it appears North Korea’s rocket scientists are a long ways from being able to reach the U.S. Grassley says “Whether there’s any immediate threat, I don’t sense that there is, but on the other hand, when you’ve got a real oddball as president and head of North Korea, how are you going to know what’s going to happen?”
At least one of the seven missiles was a long-range rocket, designed to reach as far as the U.S., but it failed less than a minute after liftoff.