Trump, Moon agree to lift cap on missile payload of South Korea

As the UN Security Council met to discuss a response to Pyongyang’s sixth and most powerful nuclear test, Seoul’s presidential office said that US President Donald Trump and South Korea’s leader Moon Jae-In agreed on Monday to remove limits on the payload of the South’s missiles.

The presidential office said that in a telephonic conversation, both Trump and Moon agreed to lift the cap on missile payload of South Korea as an effective countermeasure against Pyongyang’s test on Sunday of what it described as a hydrogen bomb designed for a long-range missile.

According to a bilateral agreement with the United States, South Korea was previously restricted to a maximum warhead weight of 500 kilogrammes (1100 pounds) on its ballistic missiles.

Earlier, the official Korean Central News Agency on Sunday claimed that North Korea has developed a hydrogen bomb which can be loaded into the country’s new intercontinental ballistic missile.

ALSO READ: No more road left, North Korea is 'begging for war', US tells UN Security Council

Thereafter, the US envoy to the United Nations, Nikki Haley on Monday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is “begging for war” and her country’s "patience is not unlimited".

Nikki Haley told an emergency meeting of the Council in New York that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had shown through his actions that he was "begging for war".

She urged the Security Council to take the "strongest possible measures" against North Korea after its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sunday.

(With PTI inputs)

ALSO READ: China, Russia at United Nations urge talks with North Korea