US, South Korea conduct military drill, as Pyongyang 'ballistic' threat looms

The United States and South Korea both held a joint missile drill after North Korea claimed to have conducted its first successful test of a long-range missile.

"Together with the Republic of Korea, we conducted a combined exercise to show our precision fire capability," Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement released Tuesday night.

A statement from the US Army said their own army and the South Korean military personnel conducted the exercise to counter North Korea's "destabilising and unlawful actions,"

The statement also reads that the exercise used the Army Tactical Missile System and the Republic of Korea Hyunmoo Missile II, which fired missiles into territorial waters of South Korea along the East Coast.

State news agency KCNA said on Wednesday in a report, after the most recent missile test that North Korea claimed to have developed, a new nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile with a stable re-entry system.

The US- South Korea drill comes after North Korea claimed to have tested a missile that it says can "reach anywhere in the world."

Yesterday morning missile test reached a height of 2,802 kilometres (1,741 miles), according to state broadcaster Korea Central Television, which would be the highest altitude a North Korean missile had ever reached.

US military analysts believed it probably was a two-stage ICBM, said a US official with knowledge of the Americans' analysis.

Yesterday, the US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told Chinese Ambassador Liu Jieyi, president of the UN Security Council, that she wants an emergency session on North Korea, according to a tweet from Haley spokesman Jonathan Wachtel.

Wachtel wrote that the emergency session will convene Wednesday afternoon.

While condemning the missile test UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said through his spokesman Stephane Dujarric, "This action is yet another brazen violation of Security Council resolutions and constitutes a dangerous escalation of the situation."

"The DPRK leadership must cease further provocative actions and comply fully with its international obligations," he added.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson issued a statement and strictly criticised the North Korea missile test, reports CNN.

"Testing an ICBM represents a new escalation of the threat to the United States, our allies and partners, the region, and the world," Tillerson's statement said.

-ANI