South Korea names special envoys to five countries

KCNA, citing leader Kim Jong Un, accused the United States of "browbeating" countries that "have no nukes" and warned Washington not to misjudge the reality that its mainland is in the North's "sighting range for strike".

The U.S. Pacific Command said that "the flight is not consistent with an intercontinental ballistic missile", a technology the North is believed to have tested clandestinely by launching rockets to put satellites in orbit.

Referring to North Korea as a flagrant menace, US President Donald Trump called for tougher sanctions against North Korea after it fired a ballistic missile Sunday in an apparent bid to test the South's new liberal president and the US.

The rocket, "newly designed in a Korean-style", flew 490 miles and reached a maximum altitude of 1,310 miles, the North said, and "verified the homing feature of the warhead under the worst re-entry situation and accurate performance of detonation system".

North Korea's intended audience might have been Russia and China, not the U.S. Beijing is now hosting a trade and infrastructure summit with various world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin. Moon called the launch a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions and said he will deal resolutely against such provocations while leaving the door open for dialogue.

The White House in a statement said the "latest provocation" shows a need for all countries to implement stronger sanctions against North Korea, and singled out Russian Federation.

South Korea's military said it could not yet verify the North's claims.

The North's state media said Saturday the nation will bolster its nuclear capability unless the United States abandons its hostile policy. While the White House called for stronger sanctions and noted the missile's proximity to Russian Federation saying that President Donald Trump "cannot imagine that Russian Federation is pleased".

Some readers may recall, looking at the images released by North Korea's Rodong Sinmun state newspaper, that this isn't the first time we've seen the Hwasong-12.

But Moscow said its defense ministry had tracked the missile and said it landed 300 miles away from the coast in the Sea of Japan and never posed a threat to Russian territory. On Saturday, Choi Sun-hee, the North Korean diplomat who manages relations with the U.S., also hinted that Kim Jong-un might negotiate with Trump's team, "if the conditions are set". In a show of force, the United States sent an aircraft carrier strike group, led by the USS Carl Vinson, to waters off the Korean peninsula to conduct drills with South Korea and Japan.

The latest test was also the North's first launch since a controversial U.S. missile defence system deployed in the South became operational on May 2 and follows a failed April 29 ballistic missile test. North Korea claimed the missile is capable of being armed with a nuclear warhead.

According to senior presidential secretary Yoon Young-chan, Moon expressed "deep regret" over the fact this "provocation" occurred just days after a new government was sworn in in South Korea.

The isolated North is under multiple sets of United Nations sanctions over its nuclear and missile programmes, which have triggered global alarm.

The missile was sacked from a site near the northwestern city of Kusong.

"Because we received a last-minute invitation", Park said, "we were not able to formally arrange a meeting beforehand, but having a chance to meet nonetheless shows his consideration and intention to improve South Korea-China relations".

Before Sunday's launch, an intermediate-range missile called Musudan was thought to have the longest potential range among the missiles that North Korea has test-fired - about 3,500 kilometers (2,180 miles).

The Trump administration declared early on that the waiting was over, and followed through by deploying a U.S. strike group, led by the aircraft carrier the USS Carl Vinson, to the waters off the Korean Peninsula.