North Korea missile launch: 'US building military stronger than ever'

In the aftermath of the North Korea missile launch, President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the United States is "building the military stronger than ever before". The US President told reporters at a White House meeting, "We want our military funded and we want it funded now. It's going to be bigger, better, stronger than it ever was. We are building our military stronger than ever before."

Addressing the media along with the President, US Defense Secretary James Mattis said that the North Korea Inter-continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) launch was the "highest" ever and "poses global threat". Mattis said that North Korea "endangered world peace, regional peace and certainly the United States" with its missile development.

"In response, the South Koreans have fired some pinpoint missiles out into the water to make sure North Korea understands that they could be taken under fire by our ally but the bottom line is it's a continuous effort to build ballistic missile threat and endangered world peace, regional peace and certainly the United States," he said.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in a statement said, "The United States strongly condemns North Korea's launch of what is likely an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan, indiscriminately threatening its neighbors, the region and global stability."

To counter North Korea's increasing threat to global peace, the United States is likely to hold a meeting with countries, including Japan and South Korea, soon. North Korea fired the ICBM in the direction of the Sea of Japan, a first by the country since September 15. The missile travelled about 1000 km before splashing into the Sea of Japan, said the Pentagon.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe termed it to be ''absolutely intolerable'' as it "tramples on the international community's unified determination to find a peaceful solution for the former's issue", a local media reported. Japan's Prime Minister's Office said that the missile has the possibility of "arriving in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of our country."

The missile fire comes a day after United States President Donald Trump in a summit meeting with Prime Minister Abe extended support to japan and said, "the United States of America is behind Japan, our great ally, 100 percent." President Trump last week had said that North Korea falls under the list of countries that backs terrorism.

The missile "flew eastward from the vicinity of Pyongyang" toward the Sea of Japan, South Korean military officials said. On September 15, North Korea fired an intermediate-range missile, which flew over Hokkaido Island in Japan before and swashed into the Pacific Ocean.

"South Korean unification minister Cho Myoung-gyon told foreign correspondents in Seoul on Tuesday that North Korea is on the verge of achieving full nuclear capability with an intercontinental ballistic missile that could carry a nuclear warhead," Fox news quoted the local media. 

-ANI