North Korea missile test: US seeks Security Council meeting

The US has sought an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss North Korea's new missile provocation.

A closed-door session of the 15-member council is expected on 5 July.

The request came after North Korea said it had successfully tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile.

US officials believe the claim is likely true, meaning the North may now be able to fire a missile to Alaska. Experts say it cannot accurately hit a target, however.

China and Russia, which share a land border with North Korea, have called for a freeze on Kim Jong-un's nuclear programme.

They urged the US and South Korea to suspend large-scale military exercises.

The two countries also called on the US to avoid deploying the Thaad missile system - which aims to intercept attacks from Pyongyang - in South Korea.

Chinese President Xi Jinping was in Moscow, where he held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The announcement on North Korea state television said the Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test was overseen by leader Kim Jong-un.

It said the projectile had reached an altitude of 2,802km (1,731 miles) and flew 933km for 39 minutes before hitting a target in the sea.

North Korea, it said, 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 launch, the latest in a series of tests, was in defiance of a ban by the UN Security Council.

But experts also believe that Pyongyang does not have the capacity to miniaturise a nuclear warhead that can fit onto such a missile.

How advanced is North Korea's nuclear programme?

The big question is what range it has, says the BBC's Steven Evans in Seoul. Could it hit the United States?

David Wright, a physicist with the US-based Union of Concerned Scientists, says that if the reports are correct, this missile could "reach a maximum range of roughly 6,700km on a standard trajectory".

That range would allow it to reach Alaska, but not the large islands of Hawaii or the other 48 US states, he says.

It is not just a missile that North Korea would need, our correspondent adds. It must also have the ability to protect a warhead as it re-enters the atmosphere, and it is not clear if North Korea can do that.

Unnamed US officials told media that they believed the test was of an ICBM, with one authority saying that the claim was being "taken seriously".

National security, military and diplomatic officials were discussing what to do if it is determined for certain that the test was with an intercontinental ballistic missile, CNN reported.

Once again North Korea has defied the odds and thumbed its nose at the world in a single missile launch. With the test of the Hwasong-14, it has shown that it can likely reach intercontinental ballistic missile ranges, including putting Alaska at risk.

Kim Jong-un has long expressed his desire for such a test, and to have it on the 4 July holiday in the US is just the icing on his very large cake.

Despite this technical achievement, however, it is likely many outside North Korea will continue to be sceptical. They will ask for proof of working guidance, re-entry vehicle, and even a nuclear warhead.

From a technical perspective, though, their engines have demonstrated ICBM ranges, and this would be the first of several paths North Korea has to an ICBM with even greater range.

North Korea's missile programme

South Korea's President Moon Jae-in has called on the United Nations Security Council to take steps against North Korea.

But a strong warning came from the country's Director of Operations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Cho Han-Gya said "Kim Jong Un's regime will face destruction" if it "ignores our military's warnings and continues provocations".

Japan said "repeated provocations like this are absolutely unacceptable" and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his country would "unite strongly" with the US and South Korea to put pressure on Pyongyang.

US President Donald Trump also responded swiftly on Tuesday.

On his Twitter account he made apparent reference to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, saying: "Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?

"Hard to believe that South Korea and Japan will put up with this much longer. Perhaps China will put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all!"

President Trump has repeatedly called on China, Pyongyang's closest economic ally, to pressure North Korea to end its nuclear and missile programmes.

On the prospect of North Korea being able to strike the US, he tweeted in January: "It won't happen." However experts say it might - within five years or less.

Meanwhile, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the international community "must redouble its efforts to impose a price on this regime, which strains every nerve and sinew to build nuclear weapons and launch illegal missiles, even as the people of North Korea endure starvation and poverty".

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