Japanese Defence Minister tommy Inada said the missile could be a new type compared to the five other unsuccessful nuclear tests carried out by North Korea since 2006, with two of them in the past year. He revealed it flew for 30 minutes before dropping into the sea between North Korea’s east coast and Japan, in the same direction North Korea consistently fires missiles. The missile flew 700 km (430 miles) and reached an altitude of more than 2,000 km (1,245 miles), according to officials in South Korea and Japan, further and higher than an intermediate-range missile North Korea successfully tested in February from the same region of Kusong, northwest of its capital Pyongyang. With the rogue nation’s aggressive ballistic missile testing and threats of continuing its nuclear weapons testing (also a clear violation of United Nations mandates), not to mention its bellicose threats of nuclear war against the U.S. and its allies and those nations’ reciprocal threats (including the U.S. threatening a preemptive military strike), relations have been strained. Nikki Haley, US Ambassador to the United Nations, called the launch early on Sunday morning local time a message by Pyongyang to South Korea after the election of President Moon Jae-in, who took office on Wednesday. Moon said the missile test violates UN Security Council resolutions and called it a severe challenge to the peace and security of the Korean Peninsula and the world, presidential spokesman Yoon Young-chan said. “Having a missile test is not the way to sit down with the president, because he’s absolutely not going to do it,” Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told ABC’s “This Week.”

She said it was time to “send a strong, unified message that this is unacceptable, and I think you’ll see the international community do that.”

While it wasn’t immediately clear what type of missile was launched, the U.S. Pacific Command said that “the flight is not consistent with an intercontinental ballistic missile.”

North Korea’s past satellite rocket launches have been called clandestine tests of ICBM technology, but it is not believed to have tested a true intercontinental ballistic missile yet. It said: ”With the missile impacting so close to Russian soil - in fact, closer to Russia than to Japan - the President cannot imagine that Russia is pleased.” The launch served as a call for all nations to implement stronger sanctions against North Korea, it added. Let this latest provocation serve as a call for all nations to implement far stronger sanctions against North Korea.”

Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin was in Beijing on a two-day trip to China when the missile test occurred. David Wright, co-director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the missile could have a range of 4,500 kilometers (about 2,800 miles) if flown on a standard, instead of a lofted, trajectory — considerably longer than Pyongyang’s current missiles. “The president said we are leaving open the possibility of dialogue with North Korea, but we should sternly deal with a provocation to prevent North Korea from miscalculating.”

Moon, South Korea’s first liberal leader in nearly a decade, said as he took his oath of office last week that he’d be willing to visit the North if the circumstances were right. The missile launch also sends a mixed message in that it has been reported that DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) spokesman Choe Son Hui stated that North Korea would be willing to talk with the Trump administration under the “right conditions,” although what the conditions to be met might be are still unknown. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the “the policy of strategic patience has ended” during a visit to South Korea, in which he also said

military action could be on the table if North Korea elevates the threat of its weapons programs. Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said he and his South Korean counterpart agreed that “dialogue for dialogue’s sake with North Korea is meaningless.”

The White House took note of the missile landing close to Russia’s Pacific coast and said in a statement that North Korea has been “a flagrant menace for far too long.”

The statement said Washington maintains its “ironclad commitment” to stand with its allies in the face of the serious threat posed by North Korea.
U.S. and South Korean officials confirm that North Korea launched a test missile from the west coast city of Kusong. The projectile travelled to the east for 30 minutes and 435 miles (700 km) reaching an altitude of more than 1,245 miles (2,004 km) before landing in the Sea of Japan, 60 miles (97 km) south of the Russian city of Vladivostok.