US: Korea Kim missile test threatens world peace

NORTH Korea has been accused of endangering world peace after firing another ballistic missile.

It was the first launch in more than two months – and came a week after Donald Trump put North Korea back on a US list of countries it says support terrorism.

The Hwasong-14 took off from Pyongsong and flew for 620 miles, reaching an unprecedented altitude of 2,800 miles, staying in the air for just under an hour. It is capable of reaching the US but splashed down in the Sea of Japan.

Hours later, US President Donald Trump said ‘we will take care of it’. His defence secretary Jim Mattis said North Korea was endangering world peace, regional peace and ‘certainly the United States’.

It was the rogue state’s first missile test since it launched a smaller intermediate-range ballistic missile on September 15 which flew over northern Japan.

The Pentagon stressed it had posed no direct threat to the US or its allies.

Six minutes after the launch, South Korea said it conducted its own test off its east coast, demonstrating its ability to strike North Korean launching sites.

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe ordered an emergency meeting of his national security council. ‘We strongly urge North Korea to change their policy as there will be no bright future for North Korea unless they resolve such issues as the abductions, nuclear programme and missiles,’ said Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga.

Meanwhile weapons experts have warned that North Korea is capable of hitting Los Angeles with a nuclear strike and possibly New York after advances in research this year. Kim Jong-un tested the Hwasong-14 twice in July. President Trump later told the UN that the US may be forced to ‘totally destroy North Korea’, prompting the Pyongyang regime to organise anti-US parades.