Photos have emerged of a beaming Kim Jong-un after the successful launch of a ballistic missile.
The North Korean leader was surrounded by subordinates who keenly clapped the test, which saw the rocket fall into Japanese waters.
The Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile was launched eastward from Pyongsong in North Korea’s South Pyongan Province at around 3.30am local time.
It flew for around 50 minutes, travelling 1,000km (620 miles), reaching an unprecedented altitude of 2,800 miles, before splashing down in the Sea of Japan.
Photos have emerged of the Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile which was launched from Pyongsong in North Korea’s South Pyongan Province at around 3.30am yesterday
The North Korean leader was surrounded by subordinates who keenly clapped the test, which saw the rocket fall into Japanese waters yesterday
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un is seen as the newly developed intercontinental ballistic rocket Hwasong-15’s test was successfully launched on Tuesday
The ballistic missile was launched eastward from Pyongsong in North Korea’s South Pyongan Province at around 3.30am local time, much to the delight of Kim Jong-un
A view of the newly developed intercontinental ballistic rocket Hwasong-15’s test was successfully launched is seen in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang
The missile flew for around 50 minutes, travelling 1,000km (620 miles), reaching an unprecedented altitude of 2,800 miles, before splashing down in the Sea of Japan
North Korea deliberately fires its missile on a near-vertical trajectory to artificially limit the range. If the Hwasong-15 had been fired on a typical trajectory, analysts believe it would have a maximum range of around 8,000 miles (13,000km) – leaving only South America and a small part of Africa beyond it’s reach
It marked the first missile launched since one was fired across Japan and into the Pacific Ocean on September 15.
Guam’s Homeland Security said the missile launch posed no threat to the US island territory or its mainland.
The Pentagon confirmed the missile ‘travelled for around 1,000km (620 miles) before splashing down in the Sea of Japan’.
Its initial assessment was that the ‘intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from Sain Ni in Pyongsong and flew 1,000km (620 miles) before landing within Japan’s Economic Exclusion Zone – the Sea of Japan’.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted to say President Trump was ‘briefed while missile was still in the air, on the situation with North Korea’.
Speaking in a broadcast from the White House Trump said: ‘A missile was launched a little while ago from North Korea.
‘Let me tell you that we will take care of it. We have had a long discussion on it. It is a situation we will handle.’
Trump’s defence secretary Jim Mattis accused North Korea of endangering world peace, regional peace and ‘certainly the United States’.
Shortly afterwards the US, Japan and South Korea requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council.
Pictures released by the South Korean Navy show the country’s ship-to-surface missile Haesong-II being fired from the Aegis ship in response to North Korea’s missile test