North Korea has been spotted at night moving a possible intercontinental ballistic missile towards its west coast, Reuters reported, citing a South Korean paper.
The Asia Business Daily, citing an unnamed source, reported Tuesday that the rocket began its move on Monday. The report said that the rocket was being moved at night to avoid detection.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said a day earlier that Pyongyang appeared to be planning a future launch.
An official with South Korea’s Defense Ministry told lawmakers that Seoul was seeing preparations in the North for an ICBM test but didn’t provide details about how officials had reached that assessment.
The South Korean military and Fox News could not immediately confirm the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Monday asked the body’s Security Council to impose the strongest possible sanctions against North Korea in response to the rogue nation’s most recent nuclear test, saying “the time for half measures … is over.”
North Korea is “begging for war,” Haley also said Sunday. “The time for half measures by the Security Council is over.”
Her statements follow President Trump a day earlier condemning the test in the strongest terms.
“North Korea is a rogue nation which has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success,” Trump said in one of several tweets Sunday.
The United States is considering, in addition to other options, stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2017
The precise strength of the North’s underground nuclear explosion has yet to be determined. South Korea’s weather agency said the artificial earthquake caused by the explosion was five times to six times stronger than tremors generated by the North’s previous five tests.
Sunday’s detonation builds on recent North Korean advances that include test launches in July of two ICBMs. The North says its missile development is part of a defensive effort to build a viable nuclear deterrent that can target U.S. cities.
