'Nothing better to do with his life?': Donald Trump mocks Kim Jong-Un for latest missile test

North Korea Missile-test: Donald Trump mocked leader Kim Jong-Un for having "nothing better to do with his life"
AP
Hatty Collier4 July 2017

Donald Trump mocked North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un for having “nothing better to do with his life” hours after his regime fired a ballistic missile into waters near Japan.

North Korea launched the intermediate-range ballistic missile on Tuesday that flew for 37 minutes before landing in the Sea of Japan, the US Pacific Command said.

The test is the latest in a string of recent similar launches as North Korea works to build a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach the US mainland.

It came on the eve of the US Independence Day holiday, days after the first face-to-face meeting of the leaders of South Korea and the United States, and before of a global summit of the world's richest economies.

A previous 'underwater test-fire of a strategic submarine ballistic missile' conducted at an undisclosed location in North Korea
EPA

The launch seems designed to send a political warning to Washington and its chief Asian allies, Seoul and Tokyo, as well as put North Korean scientists a step closer toward perfecting their still-incomplete nuclear missile programme.

Hours after the test, the US President tweeted: “North Korea has just launched another missile. Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?”

He then speculated over whether South Korea and Japan would “put up with this much longer” and if China – North Korea’s closest ally and biggest economic partner – would put “a heavy move” on the country and “end this nonsense once and for all”.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un inspects a "special forces" unit
AFP

Japanese PM Shinzo Abe said the launch “clearly shows that the nuclear threat has grown”.

Officials said the missile may have landed in waters claimed by Japan as its exclusive economic zone. The US said it did not pose a threat to North America.

North Korea last test-launched missiles in May and fired two on separate occasions towards the Sea of Japan.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga indicated this missile's capability exceeded previous ones, and suggested the altitude might have been higher than earlier tests.

Just last week South Korean President Moon Jae-in and President Donald Trump focused much of their first meeting on opposing North Korea's development of atomic weapons that threaten both allies.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in