North Korea threatens US after record ICBM launch as pictures of delighted Kim Jong-un emerge

UN Security Council set to convene public meeting to discuss ICBM launch

North Korea has threatened the US and claimed tensions have reached the “phase of nuclear crisis beyond the Cold War era”, while confirming that it launched its latest Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un who oversaw the country’s longest-ever test with a flight time of 74 minutes, was pictured clapping and laughing as the missile was blasted off on Wednesday.

Wearing a white coat, similar to that of a military general on his side, Mr Kim flagged off the missile test fire with his wife Ri Sol-ju, state media KCNA said.

The state-run news agency, in a bizarre claim without offering evidence, said it was a moment of a “grand explosion” of the strategic weapon “fully loaded with our strength and technology blasted” that shook “the whole planet”.

This was the second test of the solid-fuel ICBM after Pyongyang claimed its first launch this April was a “miraculous success”.

The Hwasong-18 is a more advanced missile than the liquid-fuelled ICBMs North Korea currently operates. A solid-fuel ICBM can be fired more quickly and is harder to detect when having intercontinental targets such as the US.

North Korea test-fired the missile after Pyongyang threatened to shoot down US military reconnaissance planes and warned of “shocking” consequences if they continued to fly near its territory.

Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and herself a senior North Korean official, accused the US spy planes of violating its air space at least eight times on Monday, according to a statement on Tuesday from state news agency KCNA.

“In case of repeated illegal intrusion, the US forces will experience a very critical flight,” Ms Kim warned in the statement.

The UN Security Council, which has passed resolutions banning North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons development, will convene a public meeting to discuss the missile launch on Thursday.

The launch took place as several world leaders were gathered for the Nato and Asean summits in Lithuania and Indonesia respectively, and was confirmed by the militaries of South Korea and Japan, who condemned the test.

North Korea said the missile was the “core weapon system of the strategic force” and warned the US of intensifying “unprecedented military provocations” in the Korean peninsula.

It was second test of a Hwasong-18 ICBM (AP)

Pyongyang said the launch was conducted in the face of a “grave period when the military security situation on the Korean peninsula and in the region has reached the phase of nuclear crisis beyond the Cold War era”.

“The test-fire is an essential process aimed at further developing the strategic nuclear force of the Republic and, at the same time, serves as a strong practical warning” to adversaries, state news agency KCNA said.

Experts have reacted with surprise over the successful back-to-back tests of Hwasong-18 as the country struggles with other large, multi-stage, solid-propellant missile launches.

Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, was quoted as saying by Seoul-based North Korea analysis portal NK PRO that the test was “remarkable”.

“Just how North Korea has managed to attain this stunning level of success with its solid-propellant ICBM remains a mystery, but Kim Jong-un will have few complaints,” Mr Panda wrote.

UNSC to convene a public meeting to discuss ICBM launch (AP)

Colin Zwirko, a senior analytic correspondent for NK PRO, said the launch took place from the same spot outside Pyongyang as the missile’s first test in April.

It was conducted from a field that commercial satellite imagery showed had been purposefully built and likely reinforced with concrete beneath the grass, he said.

The missile flew 1,001km to an altitude of 6,648km before landing in the sea, east of the Korean peninsula, which is about 250km west of northern Japan’s Okushiri island, officials in Japan and South Korea said.

The launch prompted Japan and the US to stage drills with Tokyo’s four F-2 jets and Washington’s F-15C jets in west of Kyushu island on Wednesday, the Japanese defence ministry said.

A video and pictures of the missile released by the state broadcaster KCNA showed Hwasong-18 being launched from a canister mounted on a road-mobile, multi-wheeled vehicle along with dramatic music and a voiceover starting a countdown before the launch.

Meanwhile, the Southeast Asian foreign ministers on Thursday said they were “deeply dismayed” by the launch of ballistic missiles this week, and urged North Korea to take action to de-escalate tensions.

Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are meeting in Jakarta with envoys from the United States, South Korea, Russia, China and others.