Ballistic missile launched in further challenge to U.S.

WASHINGTON — North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile on Tuesday that flew both higher and longer than previous such launches, a bold act of defiance against President Trump after he put the country back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The president reacted cautiously to news of the launch, stating, “It is a situation that we will handle.”

But Defense Secretary Jim Mattis expressed greater concern, emphasizing what he said were technical advances on display in the 53-minute flight, which began when the missile was launched northeast of the capital, Pyongyang, and ended nearly 600 miles to the east, when it landed in the Sea of Japan.

“It went higher, frankly, than any previous shot they’ve taken,” Mattis said in the White House, where he was taking part in a budget meeting with the president and Republican congressional leaders.

“The bottom line is, it’s a continued effort to build a threat — a ballistic missile threat that endangers world peace, regional peace, and certainly, the United States,” the defense secretary said.

North Korea said Wednesday that it had successfully tested its Hwasong-15, a newly developed ICBM that it said could deliver heavy nuclear warheads anywhere in the continental United States.

The country also declared the new missile its “most powerful,” calling it the “final version” of a decades-old effort to build its ICBM capabilities.

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, who watched the launch, “proudly declared that with today’s test, we have finally realized the historic task of completing our nuclear armed force, the great feat of becoming a rocket power,” a broadcaster said, reading a prepared statement on the North’s Central Television.

Experts said this latest launch — which landed west of the northern end of Honshu, Japan’s largest island — exhibited characteristics that underscored the increasing sophistication of North Korea’s program. The missile flew higher and for a longer duration than two previous intercontinental ballistic missile launches, which flew for 37 minutes on July 4 and for 47 minutes on July 28.