White House Blasts North Korea's Latest Missile Launch Ahead Tokyo Summit

(Photo : ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images)
The White House called on nations to criticize North Korea's "flagrant violation" of UN Security Council resolutions.

The White House slammed North Korea for testing an intercontinental ballistic missile hours before a Tokyo summit with South Korea and Japan.

National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement that the United States "strongly condemns the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) Intercontinental ballistic missile test."

She also noted that the launch was a "flagrant violation" of numerous resolutions of the UN Security Council, per a report from The Hill.

The White House official also urged nations to criticize the North Korea missile test, noting that the national security team is actively communicating with its allies.

Watson underlined that "all necessary measures" would be used to protect the United States, the Republic of Korea, and Japan following the unlawful North Korea ICBM launch, according to Anadolu.

Only hours before the president of South Korea was scheduled to travel to Japan for the first meeting between the two nations in years, North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile into its eastern seas.

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North Korea Confirms ICBM Launch

The Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea said that North Korea had fired what looked to be a prohibited intercontinental ballistic missile early Thursday morning.

Launched from Pyongyang at around 7:10 a.m., the North Korean missile was headed for the eastern seas of the Korean Peninsula, according to a military statement.

The report indicated that theNorth Korea missile test fired an intercontinental ballistic missile at a vertical angle and traveled over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) before splashing down in the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, per Al Jazeera.

The North Korea ICBM launch was also detected by Japanese authorities, who warned mariners to be alert for falling debris.

North Korean state media stated Wednesday that a sub-military unit launched two ground-to-ground missiles during training despite tensions on the Korean peninsula.