North Korea Launches Ballistic Missile

North Korea ended a 10-week pause in its weapons testing by launching what the Pentagon believes was an intercontinental ballistic missile on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump, who was briefed while the missile was still in the air, later reacted to the launch by saying: "We will take care of it."

The president, meeting Republican politicians in Washington, said: "It is a situation that we will handle."

Pentagon spokesman Colonel Rob Manning said that the missile was launched from Sain Ni, North Korea, and travelled about 620 miles before landing in the Sea of Japan.

Japan said it may have landed within 200 nautical miles of its coast.

The launch is North Korea's first since it fired an intermediate range missile over Japan on September 15, and it appeared to shatter chances that the hiatus could lead to renewed diplomacy over the reclusive country's nuclear programme.

US officials have sporadically floated the idea of direct talks with North Korea if it maintained restraint.

An intercontinental ballistic missile test would be provocative as it would signal further progress by Pyongyang in developing a nuclear missile that could strike the US mainland.

Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the US and South Korean militaries were analysing the launch data from the missile, which it said was fired from an area in a city close to North Korea's capital.

In response, it said South Korea conducted a "precision-strike" drill, without elaborating.

Echoing the initial US assessment, Japan's defence minister Itsunori Onodera said the missile was likely an intercontinental ballistic missile:

"We can assume it was ICBM-class." 

In Washington, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted that Mr Trump was briefed on the situation "while missile was still in the air".

NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, took to Twitter to condemn the launch: