Article: Putin demands to stop "intimidating" North Korea

Sara Ramos Gonzlez

English level 5
Source:
http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2017/05/15/actualidad/1494845426_831013.ht
ml

Russia has been freed from US pressure on North Korea and has called for it to stop
"intimidating" Pyongyang. Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the latest North
Korean missile test "dangerous" but has called for a "dialogue" with the Kim Jong-un
regime to resolve tensions on the Korean peninsula.

"We are absolutely against the expansion of the club of nuclear powers," Putin told a news
conference after the close of the summit on the new Silk Road that China had organized in
Beijing. Proof of the missile this Sunday, which North Korea has said is a new model
capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, is "counterproductive, harmful and dangerous."
But, he stressed, the dispute over the North Korean weapons program must be resolved
through diplomatic channels.

"We must stop intimidating North Korea and find a peaceful solution to the problem," said
the head of state, which is in line with the positions already expressed by China,
Pyongyang's great ally.

The missile that North Korea successfully tested on Sunday is, according to the North
Korean news agency KCNA, a Hwasong-12 ground-to-ground rocket, which covered 787
kilometers and reached a height of 2,115 kilometers before falling "at the precise point
predicted ". The rocket rushed over the sea of Japan, about 500 kilometers off the Russian
coast. That location had elicited a sardonic comment from the White House, which in a
reaction to the release said that President Donald Trump "can not imagine that Russia is
very pleased."

Experts agree that the launch seems to mark a breakthrough in the North Korean weapons
program. The missile flew for almost half an hour, far more than other rockets tested
before. Its range also seems superior to that of previous projectiles.

The launch "represents a level of accomplishment never seen before in a North Korean
missile," writes aerospace engineer John Schilling on the 38 North page. The rocket
"would have traveled a distance of about 4,500 kilometers if it had been launched to reach
its maximum trajectory."

North Korea "seems to have demonstrated not only an intermediate-range missile that can
allow them to confidently reach the US base of Guam - in the Pacific - but, more
importantly, [the launching] may represent A substantial advance for the development of an
intercontinental ballistic missile, "adds Schilling.

The United States has demanded further sanctions against North Korea's nuclear and
ballistic weapons program after Monday's firing. The UN Security Council will hold an
extraordinary meeting on Tuesday, at the request of Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.
The launch appears to be a response to the inauguration of new South Korean President
Moon Jae-in, who advocates opening a dialogue with Pyongyang while maintaining
sanctions against the country's nuclear and ballistic weapons program.

The goal of that program is to get enough nuclear bombs and missiles with enough scope
to launch a rocket with an atomic head capable of reaching US mainland. Kim Jong-un has
promised to test this year a missile with such characteristics, something that Trump has
replied that "it will not happen!".