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ByMatthewPennington and Edith M. Lederer The Associated Press SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile apparently failed shortly after launch Saturday, South Korea and the United States said, the second such test-fire flop in recent weeks but a clear message of defiance as a U.S. supercarrier conducts drills in nearby waters. North Korean ballis- tic missile tests are pro- scribed by the United Na- tions because they're seen as part of the North's push for a nuclear-tipped mis- sile that can strike the U.S. mainland. The latest test came as U.S. officials piv- oted from a hard line to di- plomacy at the U.N. in an ef- fort to address what may be Washington's most pressing foreign policy challenge. The timing of the North's test was striking: Only hours earlier the U.N. Se- curity Council held a min- isterial meeting on Pyong- yang's escalating weapons program. North Korean of- ficials boycotted the meet- ing, which was chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the North fired the unidentified mis- sile from around Pukchang, which is near the capital Pyongyang, but provided no other details. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said the missile was likely a medium-range KN-17 bal- listic missile. It broke up a couple minutes after the launch, and the pieces fell into the Sea of Japan. Analysts say the KN-17 is a new Scud-type missile developed by North Ko- rea. The North also test- fired the missile earlier this month; U.S. officials called that launch a failure. North Korea routinely test-fires a variety of bal- listic missiles, despite U.N. prohibitions, as part of its weapons development. While shorter-range mis- siles are somewhat rou- tine, there is strong outside worry about each longer- range North Korean ballis- tic test. Saturday's launch comes at a point of particularly high tension. U.S. Presi- dent Donald Trump took an initial hard line with Pyongyang and sent a nu- clear-powered submarine and the USS Carl Vinson aircraft supercarrier to Ko- rean waters. His diplomats have since pivoted and are now taking a softer tone. A South Korean mili- tary official said without elaborating that Saturday's launch was believed to be a failure. He didn't want to be named, citing office rules. The official couldn't imme- diately confirm how far the missile flew or whether it had exploded shortly after launch. Pukchang, just north of Pyongyang, isn't far from where the North earlier this year tested new midrange solid-fuel missiles, which raised worry because they could be quickly fired from land-based mobile launch- ers and are harder to detect before launch. North Korea has also test-fired from inland a powerful liquid-fuel mid- range missile, which out- side experts call the Mu- sudan and which has the potential to reach U.S. mil- itary bases in Guam. Meanwhile, on Friday the United States and China of- fered starkly different strat- egies for addressing North Korea's escalating nuclear threat as Trump's top diplo- mat demanded full enforce- ment of economic sanctions on Pyongyang and urged new penalties. Stepping back from suggestions of U. S. military action, he even offered aid to North Korea if it ends its nuclear weap- ons program. The range of Tillerson's suggestions, which over a span of 24 hours also in- cluded restarting negotia- tions, reflected America's failure to halt North Korea's nuclear advances despite decades of U.S.-led sanc- tions, military threats and stop-and-go rounds of dip- lomatic engagement. As the North approaches the capa- bility to hit the U.S. main- land with a nuclear-tipped missile, the Trump admin- istration feels it is running out of time. Chairing a ministerial meeting of the U.N. Secu- rity Council on Friday, Til- lerson declared that "fail- ing to act now on the most pressing security issue in the world may bring cata- strophic consequences." Tillerson said all options "must remain the table," while emphasizing the need for diplomatic and eco- nomic pressure on North Korea. His ideas included a ban on North Korean coal im- ports and preventing its overseas guest laborers, a critical source of govern- ment revenue, from send- ing money home. And he warned of unilateral U.S. moves against international firms conducting banned businesseswithPyongyang's nuclear and missile pro- grams, which could ensnare banks in China, the North's primary trade partner. "We must have full and complete compliance by ev- ery country," Tillerson said. Yet illustrating the inter- national gulf over how best to tackle North Korea, sev- eral foreign ministers on the 15-member council ex- pressed fears of a conflict on the Korean Peninsula, which was divided between the American-backed South and communist North even before the 1950-53 Korean War. EAST ASIA Seoul:NorthKoreafailsinmissiletestnearcapital By Qassim Abdul-Zahra The Associated Press BAGHDAD A car bomb at a police station in central Baghdad killed four peo- ple and wounded eight late Friday night, according to Iraqi police and hospital of- ficials. Saad Mann, a spokes- man for the Interior Min- istry and Baghdad Opera- tions Command, told the Associated Press the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber and only three were killed in the blast. He said all those killed were police- men and did not offer any information as to the num- ber of injured. The differing accounts could not be immediately reconciled. The explosion targeted an entrance to the traffic police station in Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood. Mo- ments after the attack the burning shell of a car could be seen sending up a plume of thick black smoke as po- lice fired into the air to dis- perse a small crowd. Hospital and police offi- cials spoke on condition of anonymity. The attack comes as Iraqi forces struggle to push back Islamic State group mili- tants in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the last pocket of significant urban terri- tory the group holds in Iraq. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but IS has carried out similar attacks target- ing Iraqi security forces in the past. Iraqi and coalition officials have warned that as IS loses ground in Iraq the group will increasingly re- turn to its insurgent roots. In July of last year a massive truck bombing in the same Baghdad neigh- borhood killed more than 300 people on a busy street lined with shopping malls. The attack was the deadli- est single bombing in Bagh- dad since U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. BAGHDAD Iraqi officials say car bomb kills 4 and wounds 8 BRYANR.SMITHPOOLPHOTO Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley hold a trilateral meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Kishida and Korean Foreign Minister Yun at the United Nations on Friday. | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 2017 8 B