North Korea’s nuclear weapons capabilities and ballistic missile defense programs constitute a “serious threat” to the United States, defense secretary Ash Carter said on Sunday.

The US is prepared to shoot down a North Korean missile launch or test “if it were coming towards our territory or the territory of our friends and allies”, Carter said during an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press.

Earlier this week, Donald Trump voiced a less concerned attitude to North Korean tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMS), saying in a tweet: “It won’t happen!”

Trump also used Twitter to issue familiar criticism of China, writing: “China has been taking out massive amounts of money and wealth from the US in totally one-sided trade, but won’t help with North Korea. Nice!”

On Sunday, North Korea said it could test launch an ICBM at any time from any location set by leader Kim Jong-un, and said hostile US policy was to blame for its arms development. Kim said on 1 January that his nuclear-capable country was close to test-launching an ICBM.

“The ICBM will be launched anytime and anywhere determined by the supreme headquarters of the DPRK,” an unnamed foreign ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the official KCNA news agency, using the acronym for the country’s name.

The US said on Thursday that North Korea had demonstrated a “qualitative” improvement in its nuclear and missile capabilities after an unprecedented level of tests last year. The state department said however that it did not believe that North Korea is capable of mounting a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile.

Experts have said that while North Korea may be close to testing an ICBM, it would likely take years to perfect the weapon. Once fully developed, a North Korean ICBM could threaten the continental US, which is around 9,000km (5,500 miles) away. ICBMs have a minimum range of about 5,500km (3,400 miles) but some are designed to travel 10,000km (6,200 miles) or further.

North Korea has been under United Nations sanctions since 2006, over its nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The sanctions were tightened after Pyongyang conducted its fifth and largest nuclear test on 9 September.



“The US is wholly to blame for pushing the DPRK to have developed ICBM as it has desperately resorted to anachronistic policy hostile toward the DPRK for decades to encroach upon its sovereignty and vital rights,” KCNA quoted the spokesman as saying.

“Anyone who wants to deal with the DPRK would be well advised to secure a new way of thinking after having clear understanding of it,” the spokesman said, according to KCNA.