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North Korea launched a missile Tuesday that went down in the Sea of Japan about 370 kilometers from the Japanese coast.

American officials say it was an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM. They say it traveled higher, farther and longer than any earlier North Korean test missile.

President Donald Trump spoke about the launch during a meeting with congressional leaders at the White House. He said the United States, in his words, “will take care of it.” He told reporters, “It’s a situation that we will handle.” He did not offer any details.

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis also spoke at the meeting. He said North Korea is continuing to build missiles that can “threaten everywhere in the world.”

U.S. Defense Department spokesman Rob Manning said the ICBM launched from Sain Ni in North Korea. It traveled about 1,000 kilometers, he said.

South Korean military officials said the missile reached the height of around 4,500 kilometers. South Korea’s military answered the launch minutes later with its own missile test.

Japan’s defense minister estimated that the missile flew for about 50 minutes. The launch is North Korea’s first since it fired an intermediate range missile over Japan on September 15.

David Wright is a physicist at the Union for Concerned Scientists. He told the Associated Press that the missile appeared to be North Korea’s longest-range test yet. He said the missile could go as far as 13,000 kilometers if it had not flown at a lofted angle.

The ICBM launch came a week after the United States added North Korea back to the list of countries supporting terrorism.

North Korea called that move a “serious provocation” that gives good reason for its development of nuclear weapons.

I’m Caty Weaver.

Words in This Story

intermediate range – n. ballistic missile with a range of 3,000 to 5,500 kilometers

lofted angle – n. the degree of launch angle to set a missile’s path

provocation – n. an action that causes someone to be come angry or to do something