North Korea Launches Medium Range Ballistic Missile
Kim Jong Un After Missile Test: ‘The Entire World Looks So Beautiful’
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervises the test-firing of the Pukguksong-2 ballistic missile in an image released by state-run KCNA on Monday.
North Korea has disclosed a series of images of the Earth it says were taken by a camera carried aboard a ballistic missile during the country's latest test.
The state-run KCNA news agency said Monday that Kim Jong Un had expressed his "great satisfaction" over Sunday's test and suggested that the weapons should be "rapidly mass produced in a serial way to arm" his military.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported the North's state-run Rodong Sinmun published 58 images that were allegedly taken by a camera aboard the missile, describing them as "an apparent bid to show off its missile atmospheric re-entry technology."
KCNA added: "Viewing the images of the Earth being sent real-time from the camera mounted on the ballistic missile, Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un said it feels grand to look at the Earth from the rocket we launched and the entire world looks so beautiful."
North Korea's state-run television KRT said this image of the Earth was captured from a camera mounted on a ballistic missile fired on Sunday. KRT via Reuters
The solid-fuel Pukguksong-2 missile flew about 310 miles and reached a height of 350 miles Sunday before plunging into the Pacific Ocean, the Associated Press reported.
A White House official told NBC News that the missile was of a type that was last tested in February and that it had a shorter range than tge missiles North Korea launched more recently.
South Korea held a National Security Council meeting Sunday to discuss the latest launch, which came hours after new President Moon Jae-in named his new foreign minister nominee and top advisers for security and foreign policy.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday that Seoul and Washington believe Sunday's test provided North Korea with unspecified "meaningful data" on its push to improve the credibility of missile technology.
But spokesman Roh Jae-cheon said the allies believe more analysis is required to verify whether the test showed the North had achieved a breakthrough in re-entry technology.
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There is skepticism about North Korea's claims about its re-entry technology, which is needed to return a warhead to the atmosphere from space so it can hit its intended target.
North Korea has rejected all calls to curtail its nuclear and missile programs in recent years, calling them legitimate self-defense.
It has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of striking the U.S. mainland.
Sunday's missile test follows the launch of the Hwasong-12 missile last week which North Korea claims can carry a heavy nuclear warhead.
North Korea regularly threatens to destroy the United States which it accuses of preparing for invasion. South Korea hosts 28,500 U.S. troops to counter the threat from the North, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korea Launches Medium Range Ballistic Missile
North Korea has launched a medium-range ballistic missile, U.S. and North Korean officials said Sunday, the latest in a series of tests carried out since President Donald Trump came into office.
The launch Saturday came a week after the isolated nation test-fired another missile, which experts said marked a step forward in North Korea's missile program.
The state-run news KCNA said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un personally supervised the test-firing of a Pukguksong-2, a ground-to-ground medium- to long range strategic ballistic missile. Kim called the launch "perfect" and "expressed his great satisfaction," KCNA said.
A White House official told NBC News that the missile was of a type that was last tested in February and that had a shorter range than missiles North Korea launched more recently.
U.S. Pacific Command said in a statement that it had detected and tracked the launch at 9:59 p.m.
Later on Sunday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told Fox News that North Korea nuclear testing was "disappointing, disturbing."
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also condemned the launch, describing it as a challenge to the international community.
"North Korea forcefully conducted a ballistic missile launch once again, only within one week [since the last missile launch] and despite strong warnings from the international community," he told reporters on Sunday. "This is something which tramples on the international community's effort to resolve the matter peacefully and a challenge to the world."
South Korea's Foreign Ministry said the tests were "reckless and irresponsible actions throwing cold water over the hopes and desires of this new government and the international community for denuclearization and peace on the Korean peninsula," according to Reuters.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the projectile was fired from an area around Pukchang, near North Korea's capital, according to Reuters. The office did not give further details.
North Korea has rejected all calls to curtail its nuclear and missile programs, calling them legitimate self-defense. It has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of striking the U.S. mainland.
"Today the U.S. mainland and the Pacific operational theater are within the strike range of the DPRK and the DPRK has all kinds of powerful means for annihilating retaliatory strike," North Korea's state KCNA news agency said in a commentary on Saturday.
Sunday's was the 10th test since Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20. Last week, North Korea successfully launched a KN-17 missile, which some experts said may one day may be capable of reaching Alaska or Hawaii.
There have been escalating tensions in the Korean peninsula over the North's missile tests, as well as the deployment in South Korea of the U.S. missile defense system known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD.(NBC news)