North Korea sparked fears of World War 3 by continuing its ballistic missile testing after months of silence.
US President Donald Trump has long been involved in a furious war of words with North Korea’s despot leader Kim Jong-un, after the hermit state threatened to strike a US airbase on the Pacific island of Guam.
Mr Trump promised to react with “fire and fury”, even claiming he would be happy to “destroy” North Korea if it came to it.
Upon hearing news of North Korea’s latest ballistic missile launch, Mr Trump issue a slightly less heated response to Pyongyang.
Walking past the White House press pack, who were keen to get the President’s response, Mr Trump said: “We’re talking about it, we’re going to be talking about it.”
North Korea launched its missile at around 3am local time (6pm GMT), its first since mid-September.
A South Korean military official said earlier this evening: “We confirm that we have detected a North Korean ballistic missile launch. The missile is still travelling towards the direction to the East Sea, as we are monitoring right now.
“North Korea fired an unidentified ballistic missile early this morning from Pyongsong, South Pyongan to the east direction. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff is analyzing more details of the missile with the US side.”
US President Mr Trump was briefed on the launch while the rocket was in the air – reportedly for 50 minutes.
South Korea responded furiously to the North Korea missile test by launching its own “precision strike” rocket.
Within minutes of the North Korea launch, Seoul has fired its own missile in retaliation.
Kim Jong-un’s latest launch comes hours after US Government sources also wanted a launch could make place “in the next few days”.
It also comes before planned military exercises between the US and North Korea.
North Korea’s state media have condemned the US and South Korea who are preparing to stage a large-scale operation between December 4-8.
KCNA said: “The U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet warmongers plan to stage large-scale joint military exercises against the DPRK in the air and the sea from Dec. 4 to 8, according to the south Korean Yonhap News.
“The warmongers are going to let over 230 fighters with various missions of the U.S. imperialist aggression forces and the South Korean air force make sorties to the sky above south Korea from eight bases in Japan and South Korea in order to hold a war drill simulating an actual war.”