U.S. officials to hold urgent meeting to discuss N. Korea's purported ICBM test

WASHINGTON, July 4 (Yonhap) -- U.S. national security, military and intelligence officials were to hold an urgent meeting Tuesday to discuss North Korea's latest missile test feared to be of an intercontinental ballistic missile class capable of reaching the U.S., a news report said.

The unexpected meeting on Independence Day comes after the North claimed it successfully carried out its first ICBM test, with the missile soaring as high as about 2,800 kilometers before landing at an East Sea target 930 km away.

CNN reported the officials plan to focus on assessing whether the North's ICBM claims are true.

Further details of the meeting were not available.

The U.S. Pacific Command initially identified the North's missile as an intermediate-range class, though it said it's working with other agencies to reach a more detailed assessment.

The U.S. government hasn't issued an official response to the launch yet, though President Donald Trump lamented the provocation in a Twitter posting late Monday.

"North Korea has just launched another missile. Does this guy have anything better to do with his life? Hard to believe that South Korea ... and Japan will put up with this much longer," Trump tweeted. "Perhaps China will put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all!"

jschang@yna.co.kr
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