The missile flew east about 500 km (over 300 miles), South Korean officials said.

"Our military is closely monitoring North Korea and is maintaining readiness posture," the statement said.

It seems to have fallen into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, but not within Japan's exclusive economic zone, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in a press briefing.

Authorities have not received any reports of damage on ships or planes, Suga said.

A White House official said the projectile was a medium-range ballistic missile, a system that North Korea tested in February. The missile tested in February was a Pukguksong-2, a medium long-range ballistic missile, officials said. It was the first test by Pyongyang since President Donald Trump was inaugurated. At the time, the missile was described as a "Korean style new type strategic weapon system" by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency, KCNA. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned the launch and said it was "obviously" violating the UN resolution and the "repeated provocative acts by North Korea are totally unacceptable." It's the second from North Korea since South Korean President Moon Jae-in took office last week. Moon has advocated dialogue with North Korea to denuclearize. Sunday's missile launch comes a week after what analysts called North Korea's most successful ballistic missile test yet. That missile -- a Hwasong-12 was launched May 14 -- flew for about 30 minutes and landed in water 60 miles south of Russia's Vladivostok region, the home of the Russian Pacific Fleet. North Korea has attempted at least 10 missile launches on seven occasions since Trump took office in January.</s>TOKYO (AP) — North Korea says it’s ready to deploy and start mass-producing a new medium-range missile capable of reaching Japan and major U.S. military bases there following a test launch it claims confirmed the missile’s combat readiness and is an “answer” to President Donald Trump’s policies.

The solid-fuel Pukguksong-2 missile flew about 500 kilometers (310 miles) and reached a height of 560 kilometers (350 miles) Sunday before plunging into the Pacific Ocean. North Korea’s media said more missiles will be launched in the future.

Trump, traveling in Saudi Arabia, had no immediate public comment.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the launch and watched from an observation post, state media reported Monday. The Korea Central News Agency said the test verified technical aspects of the weapon system and examined its “adaptability under various battle conditions” before it is deployed to military units.

Kim reportedly said the launch was a success, “approved the deployment of this weapon system for action” and said that it should “be rapidly mass-produced.”

North Korea has significantly speeded up its missile tests over the past year or so and appears to be making tangible progress toward developing an arsenal that poses a threat not only to South Korea and Japan — which together host about 80,000 U.S. troops — but also toward an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the mainland United States.

It’s moving ahead with its nuclear weapons program as well.

The North conducted two nuclear tests last year. It claims one was a hydrogen bomb and the other device created a more powerful explosion than any the North has previous tested. Satellite imagery suggests it could be ready to conduct its next test — which would be its sixth — at virtually any time.

Pyongyang’s often-stated goal is to perfect a nuclear warhead that it can put on a missile capable of hitting Washington or other U.S. cities.

North Korea’s media, meanwhile, have stepped up their calls for even more missile launches because of what Pyongyang claims is an increasingly hostile policy by President Donald Trump.

“The Trump administration would be well advised to lend an ear to the voices of concern that are heard from the U.S. and the international community,” the North’s Minju Joson newspaper said in a commentary Sunday. “Many more ‘Juche weapons’ capable of striking the U.S. will be launched from this land. This is the DPRK’s answer to the Trump administration.’”</s>SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired a medium-range missile on Sunday, U.S. and South Korean officials said, the latest ballistics test by a country speeding up its development of nuclear weapons and missiles.

The rocket was fired from an area near the North Korean county of Pukchang, in South Phyongan Province, and flew eastward about 500 kilometers (310 miles), said South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The U.S. Pacific Command said it tracked the missile before it landed in the sea.

White House officials traveling in Saudi Arabia with President Donald Trump said the system that was tested, which was last launched in February, had a shorter range than the missiles fired in North Korea’s most recent tests.

An official from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff also said the missile appeared to be similar in range and apogee to the midrange missile that North Korea test-fired in February. The missile launched on Sunday reached a maximum altitude of 560 kilometers (347 miles), said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office rules.

In February, North Korea used a launcher truck to fire a solid-fuel missile that it calls the Pukguksong (Polaris)-2, a land-based version of a submarine-launched missile the country revealed earlier. That missile traveled about 500 kilometers before crashing into the sea, according to South Korean and U.S. officials.

The February launch, the North’s first missile test after Trump took office, alarmed neighbors because solid-fuel missiles can be fired more quickly than liquid-fuel missiles, which need to be fueled before launch and require a larger number of vehicles, including fuel trucks, that could be spotted by satellites.

In an interview with “Fox News Sunday,” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said it was too early to know whether diplomatic and economic pressures being exerted on the North Korean government are having an impact in the wake of the latest missile test.

“We’re early in the stages of applying the economic pressure as well as the diplomatic pressure to the regime in North Korea,” Tillerson said. “Hopefully they will get the message that the path of continuing their nuclear arms program is not a pathway to security or certainly prosperity. The ongoing testing is disappointing, it’s disturbing. We ask that they cease that because until they cease that testing, clearly they have not changed their view.”

South Korea’s new president, Moon Jae-in, held a National Security Council meeting to discuss Sunday’s launch, which came hours after he named his new foreign minister nominee and top advisers for security and foreign policy. He did not make a public statement after the meeting.

In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the launch a “challenge to the world” that tramples international efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear and missile problems peacefully, and vowed to bring up the issue as the “main agenda” of this week’s G-7 summit in Italy.

The launch came a week after North Korea successfully tested a new midrange missile that it said could carry a heavy nuclear warhead. Experts said that rocket flew higher and for a longer time than any other missile previously tested by North Korea, and that it could one day reach targets as far away as Hawaii and Alaska.

Under the watch of third-generation dictator Kim Jong Un, North Korea has been aggressively pursuing a decades-long goal of putting a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.

North Korea conducted two nuclear tests last year alone, possibly improving its ability to make nuclear weapons small enough to fit on long-range missiles. The country has also conducted a slew of rocket launches as it continues to advance its arsenal of ballistic weapons, which also include midrange solid-fuel missiles that could be fired from land mobile launchers or submarines.

If North Korea did indeed fire the Pukguksong-2 again, it might be part of attempts to stabilize the system’s functions before it operationally deploys the missiles, said Kim Dong-yub, an analyst at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies.

Kim said there’s also a possibility that the North is conducting engine tests and other experiments as it pushes for the development of a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile that could potentially reach the U.S. mainland. If the North ever obtains a solid-fuel ICBM, it would likely be a rocket powered by a cluster of several Pukguksong-2 engines, Kim said.

Missile tests such as Sunday’s present a difficult challenge to Moon, a liberal who took over as South Korea’s president on May 10 and has expressed a desire to reach out to the North. Pyongyang’s aggressive push to boost its weapons program also makes it one of the most urgent foreign policy concerns for the Trump administration, though Washington has struggled to settle on a policy.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the North’s latest launch “throws cold water” on the expectations by Moon’s government to “stabilize peace and denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.”

“Our government is open to the possibility of dialogue with North Korea, but will also maintain a stance of firmly responding to provocations,” the ministry said.</s>TOKYO—North Korea said it was ready to deploy and start mass-producing a new medium-range missile capable of reaching Japan and major US military bases there following a test launch it claimed confirmed the missile’s combat readiness and was an “answer” to US President Donald Trump’s policies.

The solid-fuel Pukguksong-2 missile flew about 500 kilometers and reached a height of 560 km on Sunday before plunging into the Pacific Ocean.

North Korea’s media said more missiles would be launched in the future.

Trump, traveling in Saudi Arabia, had no immediate public comment.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered the launch and watched from an observation post, state media reported on Monday.

The Korea Central News Agency said the test verified technical aspects of the weapon system and examined its “adaptability under various battle conditions” before it was deployed to military units.

Kim reportedly said the launch was a success, “approved the deployment of this weapon system for action” and said that it should “be rapidly mass-produced.”

North Korea has significantly speeded up its missile tests over the past year or so and appears to be making tangible progress toward developing an arsenal that poses a threat not only to South Korea and Japan—which together host about 80,000 US troops—but also toward an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the mainland United States.

It’s moving ahead with its nuclear weapons program as well.

The North conducted two nuclear tests last year. It claims one was a hydrogen bomb and the other device created a more powerful explosion than any the North has previous tested.

Satellite imagery suggests it could be ready to conduct its next test—which would be its sixth—at virtually any time.

Pyongyang’s often-stated goal is to perfect a nuclear warhead that it can put on a missile capable of hitting Washington or other US cities.

North Korea’s media, meanwhile, have stepped up their calls for even more missile launches because of what Pyongyang claims is an increasingly hostile policy by Trump.

“The Trump administration would be well advised to lend an ear to the voices of concern that are heard from the United States and the international community,” the North’s Minju Joson newspaper said in a commentary on Sunday.

“Many more ‘Juche weapons’ capable of striking the United States will be launched from this land. This is the DPRK’s answer to the Trump administration,’” it said.

“Juche,” in this usage, refers to domestically produced and DPRK is short for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

In an interview with “Fox News Sunday” US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the ongoing testing was “disappointing” and “disturbing.”

South Korea held a National Security Council meeting after the launch, and its foreign ministry said the launch “throws cold water” on efforts to ease tensions on the peninsula.

At the request of diplomats from the United States, Japan and South Korea, a UN Security Council consultation on the missile test will take place on Tuesday.

North Korea a week earlier successfully tested a new midrange missile—the Hwasong 12—that it said could carry a heavy nuclear warhead.

Experts said that rocket flew higher and for a longer time than any other missile previously tested by North Korea and represents another big advance toward a viable ICBM.

David Wright, an expert on North Korea’s missiles and nuclear program with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the latest missile could have flown farther but was fired on a “lofted” trajectory, which sent the missile high up so that it would land in the open seas rather than flying over or splashing down near neighboring countries.

He noted the Pukguksong-2’s solid fuel was of particular concern.

Solid-fuel missiles have their fuel loaded in them before being moved into place, allowing them to be launched faster and with more secrecy.

Liquid-fuel missiles, on the other hand, are fueled at the launch site in a process that can last an hour and requires fueling and other vehicles.

That makes then easier to spot and easier to destroy than the solid-fuel variety. —AP</s>US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, issued a warning to crazed North Korean despot Kim Jong-un after his latest missile thundered into the ocean. He said: “We’re already applying economic and diplomatic pressure to North Korea.

“Hopefully they will realise the pathway of continuing their nuclear arms programme is not a pathway to security or prosperity. “The ongoing testing is disappointing and disturbing and we ask that they cease that.”

Earlier today, launched a nuclear-capable missile which reached an altitude of 1312 miles and flew 489 miles, according to North Korean media, before landing in the Sea of Japan. The move was reportedly greeted with disdain in Seoul, with the new liberal South Korean government dashing all hopes of future relations with the North. A South Korean military official said the missile appeared to be an upgraded, extended-range version of the North's solid-fuel submarine-launched missile.

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 denuclearisation and peace on the Korean peninsula". Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the latest missile test by the reclusive North was "a snub and a challenge to international efforts for a peaceful resolution".

Kim Jong-un has said his country needs such weapons for self defence in the face of Western provocation. On Saturday, North Korea's KCNA state news agency said in a commentary: "The U.S. mainland and the Pacific operational theatre are within the strike range of the DPRK and the DPRK has all kinds of powerful means for annihilating retaliatory strike."</s>SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — In its latest effort to develop its ballistic and nuclear weapons, North Korea fired a medium-range missile Sunday that appeared to be similar to one the country tested earlier this year, U.S. and South Korean officials said.

The rocket was fired from an area near the North Korean county of Pukchang, in South Phyongan Province, and flew eastward about 500 kilometers (310 miles), South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The U.S. Pacific Command said it tracked the missile before it fell into the sea.

White House officials traveling in Saudi Arabia with President Donald Trump said the system that was tested had a shorter range than the missiles fired in North Korea’s most recent tests.

The missile appeared to be similar in range and maximum altitude to the missile that North Korea test-fired in February, an official from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The missile launched on Sunday reached an altitude of 560 kilometers (347 miles), said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office rules.

The February test involved using a launch truck to fire a solid-fuel missile that North Korea calls the Pukguksong (Polaris)-2, a land-based version of a submarine-launched missile the country revealed earlier. That missile traveled about 500 kilometers before crashing into the sea, according to South Korean and U.S. officials.

The February launch, the North’s first missile test after Trump took office, alarmed neighbors because solid-fuel missiles can be fired faster than liquid-fuel missiles, which need to be fueled before launch and require a larger number of vehicles, including fuel trucks. Those vehicles could be spotted by satellites.

In an interview with “Fox News Sunday,” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said it was too early to know whether diplomatic and economic pressures being exerted on the North Korean government are having an impact in the wake of the latest missile test.

“We’re early in the stages of applying the economic pressure as well as the diplomatic pressure to the regime in North Korea,” Tillerson said. “Hopefully they will get the message that the path of continuing their nuclear arms program is not a pathway to security or certainly prosperity. The ongoing testing is disappointing. It’s disturbing.”

South Korea’s new president, Moon Jae-in, held a National Security Council meeting to discuss Sunday’s launch, which came hours after he named his new foreign minister nominee and top advisers for security and foreign policy. He did not make a public statement after the meeting.

In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the launch a “challenge to the world” that tramples international efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear and missile problems peacefully. He vowed to bring up the issue at this week’s G-7 summit in Italy.

At the United Nations, diplomats from the U.S., Japan and South Korea said they requested a Security Council consultation on the missile test. The closed discussion will take place Tuesday. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting had not been officially announced.

The launch came a week after North Korea successfully tested a new midrange missile that it said could carry a heavy nuclear warhead. Experts said that rocket flew higher and for a longer time than any other missile previously tested by North Korea, and that it could one day reach targets as far away as Hawaii and Alaska.

Under the watch of third-generation dictator Kim Jong Un, North Korea has been pursuing a decades-long goal of putting a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.

North Korea conducted two nuclear tests last year alone, possibly improving its ability to make nuclear weapons small enough to fit on long-range missiles. The country has also conducted a slew of rocket launches as it continues to advance its arsenal of ballistic weapons, which include midrange solid-fuel missiles that could be fired from mobile land launchers or submarines.

If North Korea did indeed fire the Pukguksong-2 again, it might be part of attempts to stabilize the system before operationally deploying the missiles, said Kim Dong-yub, an analyst at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies.

Kim said there’s also a possibility that the North is conducting engine tests and other experiments as it pushes for the development of a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile that could potentially reach the U.S. mainland. If the North ever obtains a solid-fuel ICBM, it would likely be a rocket powered by a cluster of several Pukguksong-2 engines, Kim said.

Missile tests such as Sunday’s present a difficult challenge to Moon, a liberal who took over as South Korea’s president on May 10 and has expressed a desire to reach out to the North. Pyongyang’s aggressive push to improve its weapons program also makes it one of the most urgent foreign policy concerns for the Trump administration.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the North’s latest launch “throws cold water” on the expectations by Moon’s government to “stabilize peace and denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.”

Associated Press Writer Edith M. Lederer in New York contributed to this report.</s>North Korea has carried out another missile test despite warning form the United Nations

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the projectile was fired on Sunday afternoon, near capital city Pyongyang.

It comes a week after the secretive country successfully tested a new midrange missile that could reportedly carry a nuclear warhead.

Dictator Kim Jong-un witnessed that test and “hugged officials in the field of rocket research, saying that they worked hard to achieve a great thing”, according to the state Korean Central News Agency.

The rocket flew 7,490 miles and hit an altitude of 1,310 miles, Pyongyang said, and “verified the homing feature of the warhead under the worst re-entry situation and accurate performance of detonation system”.

If the claims are true, the test would be a major advance in the country’s bid to make a nuclear-tipped rocket, flying higher and for a longer time than any of its previous missiles.

Last Monday the UN reiterated is demand for North Korea to stop conducting missile tests, calling for a “sincere commitment to denuclearization through concrete action".

However, North Korea has vowed to continue missile tests on a “weekly” basis and threatened “all out war” if the US takes military action.</s>North Korea on Monday declared its medium-range Pukguksong-2 missile ready for deployment after a weekend test, the latest step in its quest to defy UN sanctions and develop an intercontinental rocket capable of striking US targets.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency said the North's leader Kim Jong-Un oversaw Sunday's launch, which sparked a fresh chorus of international condemnation and threats of tougher sanctions.

The missile tested was the Pukguksong-2, which uses solid fuel that allows for immediate firing, KCNA said.

So far almost all the North's missiles have been liquid-fuelled, which have to be painstakingly filled with propellant before launch, while solid fuel missiles can be fired far more rapidly.

That would dramatically shorten the time available for any attempt to intervene and prevent a launch, requiring any such decision to be taken much more quickly.

Seoul military officials have previously said the Pukguksong-2 -- a land-based version of Pyongyang's submarine-launched weapon -- uses solid fuel.

Kim said "with pride" that the Pukguksong-2 was a "very accurate" missile and a "successful strategic weapon", KCNA said, adding he "approved the deployment of this weapon system for action".

The launch "completely verified" the reliability and accuracy of the device, and its late-stage warhead guidance system, KCNA said, adding the test results were "perfect".

Images carried by the Rodong Sinmun -- the official mouthpiece of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea -- showed a smiling Kim clapping surrounded by his aides in an outdoor observation post as the missile shot up into the air.

It also had several pictures of the Earth said to have been taken from the rocket from space -- the first such pictures released by the North.

Kim "said he was very happy to see pictures of the Earth taken by our rocket and that the world looks beautiful", KCNA said, adding that he ordered the missile to be "rapidly mass-produced".

The missile, which was described by Washington as medium-range, was fired from Pukchang in South Pyongan province and travelled about 500 kilometres (310 miles) before landing in the Sea of Japan, according to the South's armed forces.

The rocket used a cold-launch system, KCNA said.

The technology uses compressed gas to propel a missile upwards before its engine ignites in mid-air. It is considered safer and also makes it easier to hide the launch location.

A spokesman for Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters that South Korean and US intelligence authorities "assess that North Korea secured meaningful data in advancing the reliability of its missile technology through yesterday's missile launch".

But he added: "Our position is that the stable re-entry of the warhead needs more verification."

The US, South Korea and Japan sharply denounced the launch and jointly requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, which will be held Tuesday.

The launch came just one week after the North fired a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missile, which according to Pyongyang was capable of carrying a "heavy" nuclear warhead".

Analysts said that at 4,500 kilometres the Hwasong-12 had a longer range than any previous ballistic missile launched by the North, putting US bases on the Pacific island of Guam within reach -- and that it could serve as a platform to develop a long-range ICBM.

Pyongyang has long had missiles that can reach targets across South Korea and Japan but is accelerating efforts to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the continental United States -- something President Donald Trump has vowed "won't happen".

The launches, and a threatened sixth nuclear test, have fuelled tension with the Trump administration, which has warned that military intervention was an option under consideration, sending fears of conflict spiralling.

But so far Washington has opted for sanctions and diplomatic pressure, while looking to China, the North's closest ally, to help rein in Pyongyang.

Seoul's foreign ministry slammed the "reckless and irresponsible" weekend firing as "throwing cold water on the hope and longing of the new government and the international community" for denuclearisation and peace on the Korean peninsula.

South Korea's new President Moon Jae-In has previously taken a more conciliatory line towards Pyongyang than his conservative predecessors, but has reacted strongly to the latest two missile tests.</s>SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of — North Korea fired a solid-fuel ballistic missile Sunday that can be harder for outsiders to detect before launch and later said the test was hailed as perfect by leader Kim Jong Un.

The official Korean Central News Agency confirmed Monday the missile was a Pukguksong-2, a medium-to-long range ballistic missile also launched in February. South Korea and the U.S. had earlier described Sunday’s missile as medium-range.

The Pukguksong (Polaris)-2 is a land-based version of a submarine-launched missile. The missile advances North Korea’s weapons capabilities because solid-fuel missiles can be fired faster and more secretly than those using liquid fuel, which much be added separately and transported to a launch site using trucks that can be seen by satellites.

The rocket was fired near the county of Pukchang in South Phyongan province and flew eastward about 500 kilometres (310 miles), an official from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. It reached an altitude of 560 kilometres (347 miles), the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, citing office rules.

The U.S. Pacific Command said it tracked the missile before it fell into the sea.

KCNA said the test was intended to verify technical indexes of the weapon system and examine its adaptability under various battle conditions before deployment to military units. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the launch from an observation post and approved its deployment after analyzing the results with officials and finding them perfect, the state news agency said.

The February launch was the North’s first missile test after President Donald Trump took office. Sunday’s launch followed one a week earlier of a rocket that flew higher and for a longer time than any missile the North has previously launched and could one day reach targets in Hawaii and Alaska. North Korea called that launch a success test of a missile that could carry a heavy nuclear warhead.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday it was too early to know if the international pressures being exerted on North Korea to discourage its weapons programs were having an impact.

“We’re early in the stages of applying the economic pressure as well as the diplomatic pressure to the regime in North Korea,” Tillerson said on “Fox News Sunday.” ”Hopefully they will get the message that the path of continuing their nuclear arms program is not a pathway to security or certainly prosperity. The ongoing testing is disappointing. It’s disturbing.“

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 North has achieved a re-entry technology, which would return a warhead safely back into the atmosphere, for the missile.

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.

In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the launch a “challenge to the world” that tramples international efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear and missile problems peacefully. He vowed to bring up the issue at this week’s G-7 summit in Italy.

At the United Nations, diplomats from the U.S., Japan and South Korea said they requested a Security Council consultation on the missile test. The closed discussion will take place Tuesday. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting had not been officially announced.

Under third-generation dictator Kim Jong Un, North Korea has been advancing its decades-long goal of putting a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. Its two nuclear tests last year may have improved its ability to make nuclear weapons small enough to fit on long-range missiles. And each successful rocket launch is seen as improving or expanding the range and capabilities of its missile arsenal.

The test of a Pukguksong-2 might be part of attempts to stabilize the system before operationally deploying the missiles, said Kim Dong-yub, an analyst at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies.

Kim said there’s also a possibility that the North is conducting engine tests and other experiments as it pushes for the development of a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile that could potentially reach the U.S. mainland. If the North ever obtains a solid-fuel ICBM, it would likely be a rocket powered by a cluster of several Pukguksong-2 engines, Kim said.

Missile tests such as Sunday’s present a difficult challenge to Moon, a liberal who took over as South Korea’s president on May 10 and has expressed a desire to reach out to the North. Pyongyang’s aggressive push to improve its weapons program also makes it one of the most urgent foreign policy concerns for the Trump administration.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the North’s latest launch “throws cold water” on the expectations by Moon’s government to “stabilize peace and denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.”

Associated Press Writer Edith M. Lederer in New York contributed to this report.</s>North Korea said Monday it is ready to start mass-producing a new medium-range missile after a weekend test-launch confirmed its combat readiness. It called the missile, capable of reaching Japan and major U.S. military bases there, an “answer” to U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies.

The solid-fuel Pukguksong-2 missile flew about 500 kilometres and reached a height of 560 kilometres on Sunday before plunging into the Pacific Ocean. North Korea’s media said more missiles will be launched in the future.

Trump, travelling in Saudi Arabia and Israel, had no immediate public comment.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered the launch and watched from an observation post, state media reported Monday. The Korea Central News Agency said the test verified technical aspects of the weapon system and examined its “adaptability under various battle conditions” before it is deployed to military units.

Kim reportedly said the launch was a success, “approved the deployment of this weapon system for action” and said that it should “be rapidly mass-produced.”

North Korea has significantly speeded up its missile tests over the past year or so and appears to be making tangible progress toward developing an arsenal that poses a threat to South Korea and Japan – which together host about 80,000 U.S. troops – and developing an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the mainland United States.

It’s moving ahead with its nuclear weapons program as well.

North Korea conducted two nuclear tests last year. It claims one was a hydrogen bomb and the other device created a more powerful explosion than any it has previously tested. Satellite imagery suggests it could be ready to conduct its next test – which would be its sixth – at virtually any time.

North Korea’s often-stated goal is to perfect a nuclear warhead that it can put on a missile capable of hitting Washington or other U.S. cities.

Its state media, meanwhile, have stepped up their calls for even more missile launches because of what the government says is an increasingly hostile policy from President Trump.

“The Trump administration would be well advised to lend an ear to the voices of concern that are heard from the U.S. and the international community,” North Korea’s Minju Joson newspaper said in a commentary Sunday. “Many more ‘Juche weapons’ capable of striking the U.S. will be launched from this land. This is the DPRK’s answer to the Trump administration.“’ “Juche,” in this usage, refers to domestically produced and DPRK is short for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

In an interview with “Fox News Sunday,” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the ongoing testing is “disappointing” and “disturbing.”

South Korea held a National Security Council meeting after the launch, which its Foreign Ministry said “throws cold water” on efforts to ease tensions on the peninsula.

At the request of diplomats from the U.S., Japan and South Korea, a United Nations’ Security Council consultation on the missile test is to take place Tuesday.

North Korea a week earlier successfully tested a new midrange missile – the Hwasong 12 – that it said could carry a heavy nuclear warhead.

Experts said that rocket flew higher and for a longer time than any other missile previously tested by North Korea and represents another big advance toward a viable ICBM.

David Wright, an expert on North Korea’s missiles and nuclear program with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the latest missile could have flown farther but was fired on a “lofted” trajectory, which sends the missile high up so that it will land in the open seas rather than flying over or splashing down near neighbouring countries.

He noted the Pukguksong-2’s solid fuel is of particular concern.

Solid-fuel missiles have their fuel loaded in them before being moved into place, allowing them to be launched faster and with more secrecy. Liquid-fuel missiles, on the other hand, are generally fueled at the launch site in a process that can last an hour and requires fuelling and other vehicles. That makes them easier to spot and easier to destroy.
South Korea reports North Korea fired a Pukguksong-2 intermediate-range ballistic missile that flew 500 km before landing in the Sea of Japan.