Trump slams Kim Jong-un after missile launch

US President Donald Trump has slammed Kim Jong-un in response to North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch and warned him that South Korea and Japan's patience is running out.

"North Korea has just launched another missile. Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?" Trump tweeted on Tuesday.

"Hard to believe that South Korea and Japan will put up with this much longer. Perhaps China will put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all!" he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, North Korealaunched a new ballistic missile test, firing at least one missile that fell into the Sea of Japan, also called the East Sea, a spokesperson for the South Korean Ministry of National Defence told Efe news.

The launch was conducted near the Panghyon air base, where the North Korean military fired the Pukguksong-2 missile, also known as KN-15 with an estimated range of about 3,000 km, for the first time on February 12.

Japanese government spokesperson Yoshihide Suga said at a press conference that the missile was believed to have fallen into the maritime Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which stretches some 200 km off the Japanese coastline.

This latest North Korean weapons test, the first since a cruise missile launch on June 8 and the 11th so far this year, comes just after the new South Korean president Moon Jae-in and Trump met last week in Washington to address the North Korean issue, and just hours ahead of the US Independence Day.

--IANS

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