SEOUL/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States flew two supersonic B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force on Sunday and the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said China, Japan and South Korea needed to do more after Pyongyang’s latest missile tests. 
 
 North Korea said it conducted another successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) on Friday that proved its ability to strike America’s mainland, drawing a sharp warning from U.S. President Donald Trump. 
 
 Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Twitter on Sunday that the United States was “done talking” about North Korea, which was “not only a U.S. problem.” 
 
 “China is aware they must act,” Haley said, urging Japan and South Korea to increase pressure and calling for an international solution. 
 
 China, the North’s main ally, said it opposed North Korea’s missile launches, which it said violate UN Security Council resolutions designed to curb Pyongyang’s banned nuclear and missile programs. 
 
 “At the same time, China hopes all parties act with caution, to prevent tensions from continuing to escalate,” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday. 
 
 Early in his presidency, Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and had expressed hope Beijing would use its economic clout to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. 
 
 But on Saturday, Trump said on Twitter that he was “very disappointed in China” which he said profits from trade with the United States but does “NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue,” he said. 
 
 DIRECT RESPONSE 
 
 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un personally supervised the midnight test launch of the missile on Friday night and said it was a “stern warning” for the United States that it would not be safe from destruction if it tries to attack, the North’s official KCNA news agency said. 
 
 North Korea’s state television broadcast pictures of the launch, showing the missile lifting off in a fiery blast in darkness and Kim cheering with military aides. 
 
 The missile test came a day after the U.S. Senate approved a package of sanctions against North Korea, Russia and Iran. 
 
 The B-1B flight was a response to the missile test and the July 3 launch of the “Hwasong-14” rocket, the Pentagon said. The bombers took off from a U.S. air base in Guam, and were joined by Japanese and South Korean fighter jets during the exercise, according to the statement. 
 
 “North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability,” Pacific Air Forces commander General Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy said in a statement. 
 
 One of two U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers flies a 10-hour mission from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, into Japanese airspace and over the Korean Peninsula, July 30, 2017. U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Jacob Skovo/Handout via REUTERS. 
 
 “If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing.” 
 
 Also on Sunday, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency announced the United States had successfully shot down a medium-range missile in the latest test of its THAAD missile defense program which is designed to protect the country against potential threats from countries such as North Korea and Iran. 
 
 The test was planned well before the rising tensions with North Korea and involved a medium-range missile, not the long-range types being tested by the North Koreans. 
 
 FAR REACH 
 
 The Hwasong-14, named after the Korean word for Mars, reached an altitude of 3,724.9 km (2,314.6 miles) and flew 998 km (620 miles)for 47 minutes and 12 seconds before landing in the waters off the Korean peninsula’s east coast, KCNA said. 
 
 Western experts said calculations based on that flight data and estimates from the U.S., Japanese and South Korean militaries showed the missile could have been capable of going as far into the United States as Denver and Chicago. 
 
 David Wright of the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists wrote in a blog post that if it had flown on a standard trajectory, the missile would have had a range of 10,400 km (6,500 miles). 
 
 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a leading Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, said she saw the test as “a clear and present danger to the United States.” 
 
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 “I think the only solution is a diplomatic one. I’m very disappointed in China’s response, that it has not been firmer or more helpful,” Feinstein told CBS television’s “Face the Nation,” urging the administration to begin talks with the North. 
 
 U.S. intelligence officials assess that even if North Korea does develop a reliable, nuclear-capable ICBM, which some say it remains several steps short of doing, the weapon would be almost useless except to deter the conventional attacks that Kim fears. 
 
 Intelligence experts have concluded that Kim will not abandon his pursuit of a deliverable nuclear weapon. 
 
 “Kim is determined to secure international recognition of the North as a nuclear armed state, for the purposes of security, prestige, and political legitimacy,” says the National Intelligence Council’s January Global Trends report. ||||| Leaders agreed to call for an emergency meeting of the UN security council to discuss the launch 
 
 Donald Trump and Shinzo Abe have vowed to increase pressure on North Korea after the regime launched a missile over Japan on Tuesday morning. 
 
 The Japanese prime minister denounced the launch as an “unprecedented and grave threat” to the country’s security. In a 40-minute phone call with the US president they agreed to call for an emergency meeting of the UN security council to discuss the situation. 
 
 
 
 Living on the edge of oblivion: life along the North Korean border Read more 
 
 Officials in South Korea said the missile may have flown further than any other tested by North Korea. The test, one of the most provocative ever from the reclusive state, sent a clear message to Washington just weeks after Kim Jong-un threatened to target the US Pacific territory of Guam with similar intermediate-range missiles. 
 
 It also demonstrated the regime’s willingness to raise the diplomatic stakes by sending a missile directly over Japanese territory. Pyongyang has tested more powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) this year, but Tuesday’s launch followed a much flatter trajectory than those tests. 
 
 Trump said the US was “100% with Japan” and repeated his strong commitment to the defence of Japan, Abe said shortly after the call. 
 
 
 
 “The outrageous act of firing a missile over our country is an unprecedented, serious and grave threat and greatly damages regional peace and security,” Abe told reporters in Tokyo, adding that his government had protested to Pyongyang via the Japanese embassy in Beijing. 
 
 The missile was the third fired by North Korea to have passed over Japanese territory. The first was in 1998 and the second in 2009, although Pyongyang claims they were satellites. 
 
 Abe said Japan would “strongly call for increased pressure on North Korea in cooperation with the international community” via the security council. 
 
 
 
 The missile, thought to be a new intermediate-range Hwasong-12, flew over Hokkaido and landed in the Pacific about 733 miles (1,180km) east of the northern Japanese island, South Korean and Japanese officials said. 
 
 The Hwasong-12 is the same type of missile North Korea recently threatened to launch towards Guam. 
 
 China called for restraint and warned that the situation on the Korean peninsular had reached “a tipping point approaching a crisis”. 
 
 Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily press briefing in Beijing: “Think hard about it, who do you think should take the blame, if China is urging all parties to calm down while one party holds constant military exercises … and the other is constantly launching missiles?” 
 
 Japan’s J-Alert warning system advised people across a large area of northern Japan to seek shelter. Japan’s self-defence forces did not attempt to shoot down the missile and there were no reports of damage from falling debris. 
 
 
 
 The public broadcaster NHK said the missile had been launched from a site near the North Korean capital, Pyongyang and passed over a sparsely populated area of Hokkaido just after 6am local time (10pm Monday British summer time). It broke into three parts and landed in the sea. 
 
 Seoul’s joint chiefs of staff (JCS) said the missile travelled about 2,700km and reached a maximum height of 550km. 
 
 The JCS said it was analysing the launch with the US and that South Korea’s military had strengthened its monitoring and preparation in case of further actions from North Korea. 
 
 Abe said his government was trying to establish the details of the launch and was doing everything possible to ensure the safety of the Japanese people. 
 
 Tuesday’s launch may have been a show of defiance towards military drills involving US and South Korean troops as well as a smaller number of personnel from other countries. 
 
 The drills have coincided with a dramatic rise in tensions on the Korean peninsula after North Korea’s test launch of two ICBMs and its threat to target seas off the coast of the Guam. 
 
 Seoul and Washington say their drills are an opportunity for the allies to improve their defensive capabilities but Pyongyang routinely denounces them as a dress rehearsal for war against North Korea. 
 
 On Tuesday North Korea’s ambassador to the UN said the joint exercises were driving the Korean peninsula towards “an extreme level of explosion”. 
 
 “Now that the US has openly declared its hostile intention towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, by waging aggressive joint military exercises despite repeated warnings … my country has every reason to respond with tough counter-measures as an exercise of its right to self defence,” Han Tae Song told the UN conference on disarmament, which is taking place in Geneva. 
 
 At the UN conference, multiple envoys, including those from the US, European Union, Japan and Australia took the floor to blast North Korea. “My hope is that North Korea ends this provocative behaviour,” US ambassador Robert Wood said. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest US soldiers during the annual US South Korea Ulchi-Freedom Guardian military exercises in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea. Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/AP 
 
 
 
 
 
 The latest launch came three days after the North fired what were assessed as three short-range ballistic missiles into the sea and a month after its second test flight of an ICBM that analysts say could theoretically reach the US mainland. 
 
 Tuesday’s missile landed nowhere near Guam, which is about 2,500km south of Tokyo, but it covered enough distance to suggest that North Korea could follow up on its threat to the US territory. 
 
 South Korea said it was launched from Sunan, the location of Pyongyang’s international airport, raising the possibility that a runway was used as the launchpad. 
 
 Several towns in Japan have held evacuation drills this year in anticipation of a North Korean attack and there has been a steep rise in sales of individual nuclear shelters. 
 
 
 
 After North Korea threatened to fire a volley of missiles towards Guam earlier this month, Japan deployed Patriot missile defence systems in areas along the missiles’ anticipated route. Japan also has an Aegis destroyer stationed in the Sea of Japan. 
 
 North Korea first fired a missile over Japanese territory in 1998, triggering widespread condemnation and attempts by Japan’s government to improve its missile defence systems. 
 
 Japan has in the past vowed to shoot down North Korean missiles or rockets that threaten to hit its territory. In 2009 a North Korean rocket passed over Japanese territory without incident, leading to an immediate denunciation by Japan. 
 
 At the time North Korea said it was launching a telecommunications satellite but Washington, Seoul and Tokyo believed Pyongyang was testing an ICBM. 
 
 Wang Zhen in Beijing and agencies contributed to this report ||||| An initial assessment shows that North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) today that flew for more than 40 minutes, traveling 620 miles horizontally into the Sea of Japan, a U.S. official said. 
 
 "The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) determined the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America," Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said in a statement. 
 
 The launch was detected at about 10:41 a.m. ET (11:41 p.m. local time). 
 
 On Saturday morning local time, the U.S. and South Korea fired short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan "as a show of force" in response to North Korea's launch, the U.S. military said in a statement. 
 
 The missile was launched near an arms plant from Mupyong-ni, in the far north of North Korea, and traveled about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) before splashing down in the Sea of Japan. The landing was inside of Japan’s Economic Exclusion Zone, about 88 nautical miles west of Hokkaido. Davis said the missile was in the air for at least 40 minutes. 
 
 "Our commitment to the defense of our allies, including the Republic of Korea and Japan, in the face of these threats, remains ironclad. We remain prepared to defend ourselves and our allies from any attack or provocation," Davis said. 
 
 In a statement, President Donald Trump condemned the launch, saying that North Korea's "second such test in less than a month" is the "latest reckless and dangerous action" by Kim Jong Un's regime. 
 
 KRT via AP Video 
 
 "The United States condemns this test and rejects the regime’s claim that these tests — and these weapons — ensure North Korea’s security," Trump said. "In reality, they have the opposite effect. By threatening the world, these weapons and tests further isolate North Korea, weaken its economy, and deprive its people." 
 
 Trump also said the U.S. will take "all necessary steps to ensure the security of the American homeland and protect our allies in the region." 
 
 Following today’s missile launch, Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Harry Harris of the U.S. Pacific Command called South Korea’s top military officer to express their iron-clad commitments to the U.S.-South Korean security alliance and to discuss military response options, David said. 
 
 Today's ballistic missile launch is North Korea’s 11th ballistic missile test this year and the first since North Korea launched an historic ICBM on July 4, an action U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said represented "a new escalation of the threat to the United States, our allies and partners, the region and the world." 
 
 That ICBM flew at a trajectory of 1,730 miles above Earth for 37 minutes before crashing into the Sea of Japan. 
 
 A U.S. official told ABC News earlier this week that North Korea could test another ICBM as early as Wednesday night. 
 
 U.S. officials had suspected a test could occur on July 27 to mark the North Korean holiday known as "Day of Victory," which celebrates the end of hostilities in the Korean War in 1953. 
 
 But rainy weather at the launch location and technical difficulties appeared to have prevented a launch until late Friday night. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The US B-1 bombers were joined by South Korean and Japanese planes 
 
 The US says it will not call for a UN Security Council meeting over North Korea's missile tests because it would produce "nothing of consequence". 
 
 Such a meeting would send a message to North Korea that the international community was unwilling to challenge it, US Ambassador Nikki Haley said. 
 
 Pyongyang said its tests proved that the entire US was within range. 
 
 The US has responded by testing an anti-missile system and flying bombers over the Korean peninsula. 
 
 On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he had spoken to US President Donald Trump and they agreed on the need for further action on North Korea given its most recent missile test on Friday. 
 
 The two did not discuss any use of military action. 
 
 'China must decide' 
 
 Ms Haley said in a statement that North Korea was already subject to numerous Security Council resolutions that they "flout with impunity". 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Ms Haley said a security council meeting would produce "nothing of consequence" 
 
 "An additional Security Council resolution that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value," she said. 
 
 "In fact it is worse than nothing because it sends the message to the North Korean dictator that the international community is unwilling to seriously challenge him." 
 
 She urged China to rein in North Korea. 
 
 "China must decide whether it is finally willing to take this vital step. The time for talk is over," she added. 
 
 On Friday, North Korea test-fired a second intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), claiming it proved that the entire US was within striking range. 
 
 The launch came three weeks after the state's first ICBM test. 
 
 Despite fierce objections from China, the US military recently began installing missile defences - the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) system - in South Korea, with the aim of shooting down any North Korean missiles fired in conflict. 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption The US says it has successfully shot down a ballistic missile in a test of its Thaad system 
 
 On Sunday, the US military said a test of the Thaad equipment in Alaska had successfully brought down a projectile fired by the US Air Force over the Pacific. 
 
 US B-1 bombers also conducted exercises over the Korean peninsula with South Korean and Japanese planes on Sunday. 
 
 'Spoiled child' 
 
 US President Donald Trump has again criticised China for not doing enough to stop Pyongyang's weapons programme while making "hundreds of billions of dollars" in trade with the US. 
 
 Mr Trump wrote on Twitter that he was "very disappointed" with China, adding that he would not allow it to "do nothing" about the isolated state. 
 
 Victor Gao, a former diplomat and Chinese government adviser, said Mr Trump's comments were unhelpful, adding that the US was acting like a "spoiled child". 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Inside the village dividing North and South Korea 
 
 China, which shares a land border with North Korea and is its closest economic ally, earlier condemned the North's test launch and urged restraint on all sides. 
 
 Mr Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping discussed North Korea earlier this year, after which US officials said they were working together on "a range of options". 
 
 But South Korea said Friday's ICBM launch demonstrated a defiance from the North, showcasing "a significant advancement in technology". 
 
 What is Thaad? 
 
 Shoots down short- and medium-range ballistic missiles in the terminal phase of their flight 
 
 Uses hit-to-kill technology - where kinetic energy destroys the incoming warhead 
 
 Has a range of 200km and can reach an altitude of 150km 
 
 US has previously deployed it in Guam and Hawaii as a measure against potential attacks from North Korea 
 
 1. The enemy launches a missile 
 
 2. The Thaad radar system detects the launch, which is relayed to command and control 
 
 3. Thaad command and control instructs the launch of an interceptor missile 
 
 4. The interceptor missile is fired at the enemy projectile 
 
 5. The enemy projectile is destroyed in the terminal phase of flight 
 
 The launcher trucks can hold up to eight interceptor missiles.
– One day after North Korea tested a missile that experts say has the range to hit major cities in the United States, President Trump took to Twitter to express his disappointment with China for doing "NOTHING for us" when it comes to the rogue country, CBS News reports. "I am very disappointed in China," Trump tweeted around 7:30 on Saturday night. "Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk." Two weeks earlier a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry said that China does not "hold the key to resolve" the Korea issue, the Atlantic reports. Experts in the US, South Korea, and Japan say the intercontinental ballistic missile launched from near North Korea's border with China on Friday flew about 2300 miles high and for a distance of 621 miles, CNN reports. All told the missile was in the air for about 45 minutes. Had the missile been fired on a flatter trajectory, major US cities like Los Angeles and Chicago would have been in its range, possibly even New York City and Boston. In response to the test the US flew two supersonic B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force Sunday, Reuters reports. The US also hopes to set up an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council this week to discuss the issue.