North Korea Launches Short-Range Ballistic Missile; Mattis Says War Would Be 'Catastrophic'
WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/CBS News) -- North Korea on Sunday launched a short-range ballistic missile, the U.S. Pacific Command said.
The missile was tracked for six minutes until it landed in the Sea of Japan, according to Pacific Command.
The White House said President Donald Trump had been briefed on the launch.
This is the ninth missile test North Korea has conducted this year. Earlier this month, North Korea claimed it had launched a missile large enough to carry "a "large, heavy nuclear warhead."
Because of the increase in ballistic missile launches by North Korea, the U.S., Japan and South Korea have, in the past few weeks called urgent Security Council meetings twice, and the U.S. and China have been working on a new Resolution with tougher sanctions, CBS News' Pamela Falk reported Sunday.
The Pentagon announced on Friday that they will try to shoot down an intercontinental-range missile for the first time.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday that a war with North Korea would be "catastrophic."
"A conflict in North Korea, John, would be probably the worst kind of fighting in most people's lifetimes," Mattis told CBS News' John Dickerson in his first official interview as defense secretary.
The North Korean regime has hundreds of artillery cannons and rocket launchers within range of one of the most densely populated cities on Earth -- Seoul, the capital of South Korea, Mattis said.
North Korea is a threat to the surrounding region, including Japan, China and Russia, he said.
"But the bottom line is it would be a catastrophic war if this turns into a combat if we're not able to resolve this situation through diplomatic means," Mattis said.
The defense secretary said North Korea isn't only a threat abroad, calling it a "direct threat to the United States."
"They have been very clear in their rhetoric we don't have to wait until they have an intercont- intercontinental ballistic missile with a nuclear weapon on it to say that now it's manifested completely," Mattis said.
In the 2018 budget the White House offered to Congress earlier this week, the Pentagon proposed spending $7.9 billion on missile defense.
