BEIJING / WASHINGTON — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is boasting over his country’s first successful test of what appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Tuesday. Voice of America reports.
Kim told a group of scientists and technicians that the United States would be “displeased” to receive what he called “a package of gifts” as it celebrated its annual Independence Day holiday, according to the regime’s Korean Central News Agency.
North Korea launched a missile dubbed the Hwasong-14 Tuesday from an airport near its border with China. The North’s Academy of Defense Science says the Hwasong-14 traveled 933 kilometers and reached an altitude of 2,802 kilometers. The missile splashed down in the Sea of Japan after a 39 minutes in flight.
Based on analysis of the steeply angled trajectory the rocket followed, U.S. experts said the missile appears to have a range that would enable it to reach Alaska.
KCNA says Kim Jong Un, wearing “a broad smile on his face,” urged his scientists to “frequently send big and small ‘gift packages’ to the Yankees.”
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson issued a statement confirming the North’s missile test, which he says “represents a new escalation of the threat to the United States, our allies and partners, and the world.”