North Korea: New Long-Range Missile Can Carry Heavy Nuke

North Korea says the missile it launched over the weekend was a new type of long-range ballistic rocket that can carry a heavy nuclear warhead.

The missile flew for half an hour and reached an unusually high altitude before landing in the Sea of Japan, with Tokyo saying the flight pattern could indicate a new type of missile.

The White House took note of the missile landing close to Russia's Pacific coast and said that North Korea has been "a flagrant menace for far too long".

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency called the missile a "new ground-to-ground medium long-range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 ... capable of carrying a large-size heavy nuclear warhead".

Leader Kim Jong Un was said to have witnessed the test and "hugged officials in the field of rocket research, saying that they worked hard to achieve a great thing," according to KCNA.

The launch represented an immediate challenge to South Korea's new leader, a liberal elected in the same week, who had expressed a desire to reach out to North Korea.

It could jeopardise new president Moon Jae-in's willingness to talk to the North, and came as US, Japanese and European navies gather for joint war games in the Pacific. Senior presidential secretary Yoon Young-chan said:

"The president expressed deep regret over the fact that this reckless provocation ... occurred just days after a new government was launched in South Korea." 

"The president said we are leaving open the possibility of dialogue with North Korea, but we should sternly deal with a provocation to prevent North Korea from miscalculating."

Mr Moon, South Korea's first liberal leader in nearly a decade, said as he took his oath of office last week that he would be willing to visit the North if the circumstances were right.

Pyongyang's propaganda must be considered with caution, but if confirmed, the claim marks another big step forward in the country's escalating efforts to field a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the US mainland.

North Korea's push to boost its weapons programme also makes it one of the Trump administration's most urgent foreign policy worries, meanwhile.

President Donald Trump's administration has called North Korean ballistic and nuclear efforts unacceptable, but it has swung between threats of military action and offers to talk as it formulates a policy.

The UN Security Council will hold closed consultations about the launch on Tuesday afternoon.

The Security Council has adopted six increasingly tougher sanctions resolutions against North Korea.

Japanese officials said the missile flew for about 30 minutes, travelling about 500 miles and reaching an unusually high altitude of 1,240 miles.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was launched from near Kusong, in North Pyongan province

The US Pacific Command said "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.

David Wright of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the missile could have a range of 2,800 miles if flown on a standard, instead of a lofted, trajectory - considerably longer than Pyongyang's current missiles.

He said Sunday's launch - the seventh such firing by North Korea this year - may have been of a new mobile, two-stage liquid-fuelled missile North Korea displayed in a huge April 15 military parade.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters the launch was "absolutely unacceptable" and that Japan would respond resolutely.