Kim missile makes Trump go ballistic

Washington/Beijing: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday hit out at North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un for testing the country’s first intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit targets “anywhere in the world” and nudged China to make a “heavy move” to “end this nonsense once and for all”.

The announcement on North Korea state television said the “successful” Hwasong-14 missile test was overseen by Mr Kim.

It said the projectile had reached an altitude of 2,802km and flew 933km for 39 minutes before hitting a target in the Sea of Japan.

The altitude achieved by the missile was the highest ever reached by a North Korean missile, and puts the US on notice that Pyongyang could potentially hit the US mainland.

North Korea was now “a full-fledged nuclear power that has been possessed of the most powerful inter-continental ballistic rocket capable of hitting any part of the world”, the Korea Central Television said.

It would enable the country to “put an end to the US nuclear war threat and blackmail” and defend the Korean peninsula, it said.

Reacting to the development on Twitter, Mr Trump said, “North Korea has just launched another missile. Does this guy (Kim) have anything better to do with his life?”

Meanwhile, Russia, China called for a simultaneous freeze on North Korean nuclear and missile tests and military exercises by the United States as tensions ratcheted up on the peninsula.

“The two sides propose that the DPRK (North Korea) as a voluntary political decision declares a moratorium on testing nuclear explosive devices and ballistic rocket launches, and the US and South Korea refrain from carrying out large-scale joint exercises,” their foreign ministries said in a statement.

“Parallel to this the opposing sides should start negotiations and affirm general principles of their relations including the non-use of force, rejection of aggression and peaceful coexistence,” the statement said.

The joint statement issued after a meeting between leaders Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping in Moscow followed an announcement by North Korea that it had test fired its first intercontinental ballistic missile.

The claim could be a watershed moment in Pyongyang’s push to develop a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the mainland United States -- although Moscow and Washington cast doubt on the claim it was a long-range missile.