The Department of Defense has released video showing the U.S. military's successful test of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD).

The U.S. tested THAAD off the Alaskan coast on Sunday, two days after North Korea successfully fired an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range long enough to hit America's mainland.

Though the timing made it seem reactionary, the THAAD test had been planned months ahead.

The video shows the American interceptor missile being fired off Kodiak, Alaska and then colliding with its target missile, which was dropped by a U.S. Air Force C-17 plane, over the Pacific Ocean.

THAAD is designed to intercept and destroy short, medium and intermediate range ballistic missiles during the final phase of their flight. It uses 'hit-to-kill' technology where kinetic energy from the interceptor missile destroys an incoming target.

However, it is not designed to hit the kind of missile that North Korea launched this weekend - which travels much further and faster.

The Department of Defense has released video of this weekend's successful test of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system

The video shows the American interceptor missile being fired off Kodiak, Alaska and then colliding with its target missile, which was dropped by a U.S. Air Force C-17 plane, over the Pacific Ocean

THAAD is designed to intercept and destroy short, medium and intermediate range ballistic missiles during the final phase of their flight

America's current defense against such missiles, Ground-based Midcourse Defense, has been much more unreliable in tests. In the past 19 intercept tests, the system has successfully hit 10 targets. Meanwhile THAAD has been a success in 12 of the past 15 tests.

The U.S. military has actually started deploying THAAD to South Korea, to defend the ally against shorter range missiles from North Korea.

The move has infuriated China, which has argued the deployment would further destabilize the situation on the Korean peninsula.

Above, the intercept missile launching over Kodiak, Alaska on Sunday

A bomber plane launched the target, and the intercept missile collided with it

The successful intercept caused an explosion of light in the night sky

North Korea's state television broadcast pictures of the missile test launch on Friday night, which was personally supervised by leader Kim Jong-un

The missile launch was intended as a 'stern warning' that the United States would not be safe from destruction if it tries to attack, the North's official KCNA news agency said.

The test was also aimed at confirming the maximum range and other technical aspects of the missile it says was capable of delivering a 'large-sized, heavy nuclear warhead.'

Had it been fired at a standard trajectory, the rocket could have reached Los Angeles, Denver and Chicago and would have even had New York and Boston within its sights, according to analysts.

The test happened two days after North Korea launched a missile (pictured) that came 'threateningly' close to Japan

In response to the North Korea's ICBM launch, the U.S. then flew two B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force

This graphic shows what the trajectory of the Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile would take, with some experts saying the North Korean rocket could reach Alaska

Hours later, the U.S. then flew two B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force after the North Korean missile tests.

The launch comes less than a month after the North conducted its first ICBM test in defiance of years of efforts led by the United States, South Korea and Japan to rein in Pyongyang's nuclear weapons ambitions.

Lockheed Martin Corp, contractor for the THAAD system, said it can intercept incoming missiles both inside and outside the Earth's atmosphere.

'A medium-range target ballistic missile (MRBM) was air-launched by a U.S. Air Force C-17 over the Pacific Ocean. The THAAD weapon system located at Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska in Kodiak, Alaska, detected, tracked and intercepted the target,' Lockheed said in a statement.

Sunday's test came amid news Trump is poised to order a military strike against North Korea ‘within the next year’.

The US intercept test comes after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching parts of the United States. Pictured: Kim Jong-Un celebrating the first successful test launch on July 4

Trump wrote that China could 'easily' solve the North Korea problem if past American leaders insisted on making them help and indicated he would no longer allow the behavior to continue

Senior military sources in Washington DC said that Pentagon officials have laid out plans to obliterate a nuclear weapons facility operating deep within a mountain in the rogue state.

The move, which could spark retaliation attacks from Jong-Un, would be a major step towards all-out war to stop North Korea from developing nuclear weapons.

The president also turned on China, tweeting yesterday the country could 'easily' solve problems with North Korea but the country does nothing to help the United States except 'talk'.

Trump took to Twitter on Saturday night to call out 'foolish' past American leaders who he believes allowed China to make enormous profits in trade while not helping with North Korea.

Trump added that China could 'easily' solve the growing problem with the country, but instead all China does is 'talk'.

Jong-un has previously warned Trump he was pushing his nation to the brink of nuclear war.