North Korea threatens US after record ICBM launch as pictures of delighted Kim Jong-un emerge

North Korea has threatened the US and claimed tensions have reached the “phase of nuclear crisis beyond the Cold War era”, while confirming that it launched its latest Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un who oversaw the country’s longest-ever test with a flight time of 74 minutes, was pictured clapping and laughing as the missile was blasted off on Wednesday.

Wearing a white coat, similar to that of a military general on his side, Mr Kim flagged off the missile test fire with his wife Ri Sol-ju, state media KCNA said.

The state-run news agency, in a bizarre claim without offering evidence, said it was a moment of a “grand explosion” of the strategic weapon “fully loaded with our strength and technology blasted” that shook “the whole planet”.

This was the second test of the solid-fuel ICBM after Pyongyang claimed its first launch this April was a “miraculous success”.

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