UNITED NATIONS — The United States pushed for tougher sanctions on North Korea at the UN Security Council on Wednesday, warning the isolated regime’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) had drastically narrowed the path for diplomacy.

In a hard-hitting address, US Ambassador Nikki Haley said Tuesday’s ICBM test had made “the world a more dangerous place,” and reiterated that Washington was ready to use force if need be to deal with the threat of a nuclear-armed Pyongyang.

Tuesday’s launch — styled by leader Kim Jong-Un as a gift to “American bastards” — marked a milestone in Pyongyang’s decades-long drive for the capability to threaten the US mainland with a nuclear strike, and poses a stark foreign policy challenge for Donald J. Trump.

The US president had dismissed the idea of the North possessing a working ICBM, vowing it “won’t happen,” but experts said the missile could reach Alaska or even further towards the continental US.

At the UN, Ms. Haley called the launch “a clear and sharp military escalation,” and US and South Korean forces fired off missiles Wednesday into the Sea of Japan simulating a precision strike against North Korea’s leadership.

Washington had “considerable military forces,” Ms. Haley said. “We will use them if we must.”

But the US focus, she told the council, was to push through tighter sanctions, and it would submit a new draft resolution within days.

In all, six sets of sanctions have been imposed on North Korea since it first tested an atomic device in 2006, but have failed to prevent its military advances.

New measures could target countries that continue to trade with North Korea, curb oil exports to the isolated country, tighten air and maritime restrictions and impose travel bans on its officials.

Ms. Haley singled out China — increasingly in the US administration’s crosshairs as the North’s sole major ally and economic lifeline — as key to any diplomatic solution, only days after Mr. Trump said Beijing’s efforts had failed.

“We will work with China,” Ms. Haley said, “but we will not repeat the inadequate approaches of the past that have brought us to this dark day.”

The US drive won backing from France, but raised immediate protests from fellow permanent Security Council member Russia, whose Deputy Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov warned that “sanctions will not resolve the issue.”

China’s Ambassador Liu Jieyi once more pushed Beijing’s alternative proposal for talks based on a freeze of North Korea’s missile and nuclear tests, in exchange for a halt to US-South Korean military drills — which has been rejected repeatedly by Washington and Seoul.

NUCLEAR ATTACK
Washington and Seoul are in a security alliance, with 28,500 US troops stationed in the South to protect it.

In a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of the G20 summit, South Korean President Moon Jae-In said the level of the North’s nuclear and missile capabilities was already a problem, “but the bigger problem is that the speed of progress is far faster than expected.”

Sanctions and pressure, he added, should be a means to push the North to the negotiating table, “and should not break the peace itself.”

The Hwasong-14 missile only traveled little more than 900 kilometers (560 miles) to come down in the Sea of Japan, but the altitude it reached — more than 2,800 kilometers according to Pyongyang — demonstrated it can travel far further.

South Korea’s Defense Minister Han Min-koo put its range at 7,000 to 8,000 kilometers — far enough to put US Pacific Command in Hawaii within reach.

The North, which says it needs atomic weapons to defend itself against the threat of invasion, said the test proved the missile’s reentry capabilities and it could carry a heavy nuclear warhead.

Questions remain over the missile’s precise capabilities, but concerns over its implications are mounting in the South. “A North Korean ICBM carrying a nuclear warhead is a game-changer,” the JoongAng Ilbo said in an editorial Thursday.

“What worries us is the uncertainty of whether the US would defend us if North Korea attacks Seoul. We cannot be sure if the US would risk a nuclear attack on New York or Los Angeles.” — AFP

WASHINGTON — It is every Alaskan’s nightmare: finding themselves within range of a North Korean missile. As that fear came one step closer to reality this week, America’s ability to block an incoming attack is under scrutiny.

On Tuesday the northwestern US state awoke to the news that Pyongyang had test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) which — though it came crashing down in the Sea of Japan — had a probable range of over 5,500 kilometers (3,400 miles), enough to reach Alaskan shores.

The US military has faith that its high-tech defensive systems could fend off any attack from North Korea — at least for now.

“It’s something we have confidence in,” said Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis, who called the latest development a “nascent threat.”

But other observers are not so sure, rattled by the pace of Kim Jong-Un’s missile program and his stated aim of building a nuclear-tipped ICBM.

“Now more than ever, it’s imperative for Alaskans and the rest of the nation that we be prepared,” tweeted Senator Dan Sullivan, one of several Alaskan congressmen who backed a bipartisan bill last month aimed at expanding US missile defenses.

The state of 750,000 people already hosts a key element of the country’s current defense system.

The Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system — installed at Fort Greely, about 100 miles outside Fairbanks in Alaska, and California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base — will comprise 44 missile interceptors by the end of the year.

But if the backers of the Advancing America’s Missile Defense Act of 2017 have their way, the government would authorize an additional 28 ground-based interceptors at Fort Greely.

Among the bill’s co-sponsors is Alaskan Congressmen Don Young, who believes “the recent actions by North Korea, a rogue and irrational regime, underscores the importance of Alaska’s missile defense systems,” his office said in a statement.

MISSILE LEAKAGE
The catastrophic scenario of having to stop an incoming ICBM as it hurtles through space was put to the test in May, when the military successfully launched a GMD interceptor from the California base.

The missile blasted outside Earth’s atmosphere and smashed into a dummy ICBM target, destroying it in a direct collision — a move akin to hitting a bullet with another bullet.

But the GMD system has had a checkered record in previous tests — failing in earlier launches against slower-moving targets.

And it could be overwhelmed by a barrage of incoming missiles.

That is why Joel Wit, a co-founder of the 38 North program of the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, said he was not fully confident in US anti-missile capabilities.

He sees a risk that Mr. Kim could build enough missiles to overwhelm US defenses — and that one could slip through the defensive net in a phenomenon known as “leakage.”

“In the case of a conflict, leakage with nuclear weapons is not a good thing,” Mr. Wit told AFP.

Mr. Wit had previously said he didn’t think North Korea would be able to deploy any nuclear-tipped ICBMs until late 2020 or soon after, but all bets are off given the latest test.

“It’s quite possible the North Koreans could deploy much sooner than then, and do that for the shock effect,” he said.

Experts do not think Mr. Kim has managed to miniaturize a warhead to put on an ICBM, though Mr. Kim has repeatedly stated that is his goal.

“Clearly they are working on it,” Pentagon spokesman Mr. Davis said.

WHAT OTHER DEFENSES
Aside from the GMD, the US and its allies also have at their disposal what is known as the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System (AEGIS).

The ship-based system’s highly sensitive radars and sensors feed ICBM-tracking data to the GMD facilities in California and Alaska, and AEGIS is itself capable of intercepting shorter-range missiles.

Retired vice-admiral Pete Daly, who now leads the United States Naval Institute, said the AEGIS system may also one day have a limited ability to intercept ICBMs.

“There is some progression and capabilities here that folks are working on,” he told AFP.

In the meantime, the US military this year began deploying the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to South Korea, capable of destroying short, medium and intermediate-range missiles in their final phase of flight.

The move infuriated China, which has argued the deployment would further destabilize the situation on the Korean peninsula.

The US and its allies South Korea and Japan also have Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptor batteries. But these are designed to protect against a regional threat and would have limited effect against an ICBM.

Integrating all three systems — THAAD, Aegis and Patriot — is another key proposal in the legislation championed by Messrs. Sullivan and Young. — AFP

BERLIN — Russian President Vladimir Putin attacked sanctions against his country and called for an end to trade protectionism, in an editorial published in Germany Thursday ahead of the Group of 20 (G20) summit.

Sanctions against Russia “are not just short-sighted but go against the principles of the G20 for cooperation in the interests of all countries,” Mr. Putin wrote in the business daily Handelsblatt.

“I am convinced that only open trade relations, based on uniform norms and standards, can stimulate the growth of the world economy and promote an improvement in relations between states,” he added.

The two-day G20 summit, starting in Hamburg on Friday, will bring together the leaders of the world’s biggest developed and emerging economies.

The United States and the European Union and other countries have imposed a raft of sanctions against Russia for its seizure of Crimea in 2014 and its backing for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has responded with measures of its own, including a ban on western food imports.

Last month, the United States added 38 individuals and entities to its sanctions list, prompting Russia to cancel a meeting with senior US diplomats and its foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, to warn the new measures “seriously threaten the whole relationship” between Moscow and Washington.

Mr. Putin is scheduled to meet with US President Donald J. Trump in Hamburg on Friday. — AFP

SINGAPORE — The siblings of Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong welcomed on Thursday moves to settle a row over their late father’s house privately, but also said any unresolved dispute over his will should be thrashed out in court.

Singaporeans have been riveted since mid-June by a public battle between the heirs of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s long-serving first prime minister, over whether to demolish the old family home or let the government decide whether it should become a heritage site.

Lee Kuan Yew’s daughter, Lee Wei Ling, and his youngest son, Lee Hsien Yang, insist that the house should be demolished in accordance with their father’s will. Prime Minister Lee has said the government must decide what to do with the property.

The siblings had accused their elder brother of abusing his powers, prompting the prime minister to call an extraordinary special sitting of parliament on Monday and Tuesday to “clear the air” over an issue that some people say has tarnished Singapore’s image.

The premier said that debate failed to find any substantiated evidence of abuse of power, but he wanted to avoid taking his siblings to court for defamation.

Responding in a seven-page statement posted on Facebook, Hsien Yang and Wei Ling described the parliamentary debate as a “whitewash” and said they had more evidence of abuse of power that they would only divulge if there was an independent investigation.

However, they also reacted positively to the prime minister saying that he wanted to settle the matter privately.

“We therefore welcome Hsien Loong’s stated desire on 4 July 2017 to manage his disagreement with us in private … without the involvement of lawyers or government agencies,” they said in the statement.

They also repeated allegations of abuse of power in a separate 10-page document titled “Evidence,” without making any fresh revelations.

“It seems that releasing further evidence on social media at this time will only muddy the facts,” they said, and that there was “much evidence” they had not made public.

“We reserve this to show to a truly open and independent investigation, if there ever is one,” they said.

QUESTIONED WILL
Before his death in 2015, Lee Kuan Yew had made public his desire for the humbly furnished home at 38 Oxley Road, near the bustling Orchard Road shopping district, to be demolished rather than turned into some kind of museum.

He stated that in his last will, but the prime minister has said there were “deeply troubling circumstances” over how the document was drawn up.

The prime minister’s siblings said in their latest Facebook posting that any dispute over the will should be resolved in court if it could not be settled otherwise.

Prime Minister Lee has said that, while he personally favored the house being demolished, it was up to the government to decide whether it should become a heritage site.

He maintains that his father was aware that the government might make that decision, and was prepared to consider alternatives if the government decided the site should be preserved in any way.

The siblings dispute that account.

“Were our father alive today, he would be furious about this situation. His wishes are crystal clear: He wanted to demolish the house because he knew it was the right thing for Singapore,” they said in their latest statement.

“He did not want Singaporeans to create a cult around him.”

The prime minister has recused himself from a committee looking at options for the house, but his siblings say the committee is made up of subordinates who cannot be impartial.

“If Hsien Loong wishes to challenge the will, the correct forum was and is the courts,” they said.

Prime Minister Lee was in Germany on Thursday for a meeting of the G20 countries. — Reuters