The militaries of South Korea and Japan announced that North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile tonight, that it would be capable of hitting the United States. This is just the latest in a series of launches carried out after warnings from Seoul and Washington that "any nuclear attack" against the United States or its allies would spell the end of the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. 

This type of projectile "could have the ability to fly more than 15,000 km, in which case the entire territory of the United States would be within its range", explained Japanese Deputy Defense Minister Shingo Miyake. 

According to the reconstruction, the test concerned a so-called Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICMB). The missile, detected by South Korean radar, would have been launched from a military base located in the Pyongyang region. The flight lasted 1 hour and 13 minutes, reaching a maximum altitude of over 6000 km. After traveling 1000 km it sank into the Sea of Japan around 9:37 am Tokyo time, 250 km north-west of the small island of Okushiri, which borders the northern island of Hokkaido.