DONALD Trump has mocked Kim Jong-un after North Korea successfully test-launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile.

US officials say the test shows Kim’s dictatorship may now possess the ability to strike the US.

“North Korea has just launched another missile. Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?” Mr Trump wrote early on Tuesday after North Korea fired a rocket that landed in the Sea of Japan.

He also suggested America’s allies in the region — Japan and South Korea — will put pressure on the North Korean regime to rein in its nuclear ambitions.

“Hard to believe that South Korea..... and Japan will put up with this much longer. Perhaps China will put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all!”

US CONFIRMS ICMB

US officials confirmed to Fox News claims made by North Korea that it successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile

The officials on Tuesday said that the ballistic missile flew longer than any North Korean missile test conducted by the rogue regime to date.

This means Kim’s dictatorship may now possess the ability to strike the US state of Alaska.

Tuesday’s missile flew for 37 minutes and reached a height of 2414km, leading missile experts to conclude it could have reached a target 6437km away, putting Alaska in its crosshairs.

“The threat is much more immediate now,” National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster told reporters prior to the launch. “So it’s clear we can’t repeat the same failed approach of the past.”

He added: “So the president has directed us not to do that, and to prepare a range of options — including a military option, which nobody wants to take, right?”

North Korea Claims Success With Its First ICBM North Korea Claims Success With Its First ICBM

Vice Adm. James Syring, the director of the Missile Defence Agency, previously said, if it didn’t already exist, it would only be a matter of time until North Korea was able to attack the US.

“We have to assume that the capability exists today to attack the United States,” he said.

The “landmark” test of a Hwasong-14 missile was overseen by leader Kim Jong-un, a female announcer said in a special announcement on state Korean Central Television.

Speculation had been rife that the successful test may mark the arrival of a missile capable of flying to the US and Australia.

The ballistic missile was fired from near North Korea’s border with China before it plummeted into the sea near Japan.

The United States has requested a closed-door meeting of the United Nations Security Council on North Korea’s latest missile launch, a spokesman for the US mission to the United Nations says.

The spokesman said the meeting of the 15-member council was likely to be scheduled for Wednesday.

AUSTRALIA CONDEMNS TEST

The Australian Government has condemned North Korea’s latest missile test, the 11th Pyongyang has launched so far this year.

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said the provocative ballistic tests were “in breach of numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions”.

“North Korea continues to threaten its neighbours while undermining regional and global security,” she said.

Data on #NorthKorea's latest test so far:

-Panghyon launch site

-930 km range (ROK)

-40 min flight time (Suga)

-Landed in JP EEZ (Suga) pic.twitter.com/PqLDIb8Nj1 — Ankit Panda (@nktpnd) July 4, 2017

Ms Bishop said the regime’s long term interests would be “best served” by ceasing its nuclear and missiles programs and focusing on improving the lives of its long suffering people.

Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull will meet with the leaders of Japan, South Korea, China and the US at the G20 world leaders’ summit in Germany later this week.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was dismissive of the test, issuing a statement simply saying: “The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment.”

“North Korea fired an unidentified ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan from the vicinity of Banghyon, North Pyongan Province, at around 9:40am,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

North Korea has just launched another missile. Does this guy have anything better to do with his life? Hard to believe that South Korea..... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 4, 2017

....and Japan will put up with this much longer. Perhaps China will put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 4, 2017

South Korea’s Yonyap News Agency a short time later announced President Moon had called an urgent National Security Council meeting.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan wanted the international community to strengthening pressure on the North. He says he will speak to President Trump and South Korean President Moon at the G20 summit in Hamburg later this week.

“I will also ask (Chinese) President Xi Jinping and (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin to respond in a more constructive way,” he added.

RUSSIA AND CHINA UNITE

Russia and China proposed that North Korea declare a moratorium on nuclear and missile tests while the US and South Korea refrain from large-scale military exercises.

The call was issued in a joint statement by the Russian and Chinese Foreign Ministries on Tuesday following talks between President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Moscow and Beijing suggested that if Pyongyang halts nuclear and missile tests while the US and Seoul freeze military manoeuvres, the parties could sit down for talks that should lead to obligations not to use force and to refrain from aggression.

South Korea’s Defence Minister Han Min-koo has said he would consider a “pre-emptive blow” against North Korea if he felt there was a direct threat.

“We are taking various security measures to enhance the effectiveness of customised deterrence strategies for defence,” he said.

EARLY SPECULATION ABOUT MISSILE

After the missile was launched, various countries speculated whether it was an ICBM.

South Korean government sources report the unidentified missile was in the sky for some 37 minutes before splashing down some than 930km away in the Sea of Japan, indicating a successful launch of a ballistic missile with intercontinental abilities.

But height data is yet to be released.

The significance is in its flight time. It could indicate North Korea is on the verge of putting a missile into the semi-orbit necessary to travel intercontinental distances.

But the missile was deliberately fired on a ‘straight up, almost straight down’ trajectory — not one that demonstrates its maximum potential reach.

US Pacific Command has issued a statement calling the launch a “land-based, intermediate range ballistic missile”.

“We are working with our Interagency partners on a more detailed assessment,” the statement reads. “We continue to monitor North Korea’s actions closely.”

Just a reminder that North Korea tested an engine on June 22nd they claim is meant for an ICBM. https://t.co/QFXqPWvib8 — Shea Cotton (@Shea_Cotton) July 4, 2017

North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won't happen! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2017

IF this demonstrates #DPRK's first missile capable of ICBM range, I'd like to know what his plan is now. https://t.co/CFSNxIWy10 — Melissa Hanham (@mhanham) July 4, 2017

Missile analysts are disputing Pacific Command’s assessment.

They say the one piece of unrevealed data about the trajectory’s apogee (highest altitude) will determine if the North Korean missile falls into the ICBM category.

But even if the height it obtained was insufficient to carry it intercontinental distances, it would remain a formidable Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) — threatening facilities throughout Japan, South Korea and possibly even the major US naval base at Guam.

The Union of Concerned Scientists has published an estimate that the missile may have reached an altitude of 2800km, giving it a total reach of about 6700km.

“That range would not be enough to reach the lower 48 states or the large islands of Hawaii, but would allow it to reach all of Alaska,” senior scientist David Wright says.

This figure is above the uppermost level usually used to classify a missile an IRBM: 5500km.

Instead, it falls within the lower limits of the definition of an ICBM.

Yonhap News quotes Army Colonel Roh Jae-cheon as saying the missile travelled “several hundreds of kilometres,” which means the firing was successful.

“But South Korea and the US are analysing the apogee of the missile and its exact flight distance,” he added.

“Our military is maintaining full preparedness against the possibility of North Korea’s additional provocation.”

This is North Korea’s 13th major missile test so far this year.

RISING THREAT

The Japan Times reports the missile splashed down provocatively within Japan’s exclusive economic control zone.

It quotes a ‘high ranking Japanese official’ as saying the missile followed a steep “lofted” trajectory.

“A missile on such a trajectory poses a grave threat to Japan because it falls at a much faster speed than a conventional launch, making an exceedingly difficult target for any US-developed antimissile defence systems deployed by Japan,” the newspaper reports.

Japan will “never tolerate repeated provocations” by the North, which has continued to test-fire dozens of ballistic missiles in recent years as they seek more precise launches, it quoted Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga as saying.

EXPLORE MORE: How North Korea’s nukes work

The test comes on July 4, just days after US President Trump demanded China and Russia do more to reign in the maverick North Korean leader’s provocations.

Shea Cotton, a researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California, told the Japan Times the test was likely deliberately timed to coincide with Independence Day in the United States.

“It’s already 4th of July in North Korea,” he wrote on Twitter. “I somewhat suspect they’re shooting off some fireworks today specifically because of that.”

We want to reiterate @chadocl comments. Although this test boasts a lot of evidence to be an ICBM, its a Big if. https://t.co/ohCFrwMWpS — Strategic Sentinel (@StratSentinel) July 4, 2017

CHINA FEARS ESCALATION

China’s UN ambassador warned overnight that further escalation of already high tensions with North Korea risks getting out of control, “and the consequences would be disastrous.”

Liu Jieyi expressed hope that key nations will be “more forthcoming” and support China’s three-part package to de-escalate tensions — revive negotiations and dialogue leading to denuclearisation and peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

(URGENT) President Moon calls for National Security Council meeting over N. Korean missile launch https://t.co/BJm1SCAamL — Yonhap News Agency (@YonhapNews) July 4, 2017

He reiterated at a news conference that an important initial proposal in the package is “suspension for suspension,” which would see North Korea halt nuclear and missile testing and the United States and South Korea stop military exercises.

Fears of a conflict on the Korean Peninsula, which has been divided between the American-backed South and communist North since the 1950-53 Korean War, have escalated as the North’s young leader, Kim Jong Un, has expanded a nuclear arsenal and developed ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads.

His government says these are needed to avert a US invasion.

North Korea’s UN Ambassador Kim In Ryong said last week that the more than 50-year confrontation between North Korea and the United States came closer to the brink of nuclear war than ever before when the US and South Korea held what he called their largest-ever “aggressive” military exercises in April and May.