U.S. requests U.N. Security Council meeting on N. Korea's missile launch

WASHINGTON, July 4 (Yonhap) -- The United States has requested that the U.N. Security Council hold a meeting to discuss North Korea's latest missile launch, U.N. diplomats said Tuesday.

The meeting is expected to take place Wednesday, the diplomats said.

After firing a ballistic missile earlier Tuesday, the North claimed it succeeded in its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, with the missile reaching an altitude of about 2,800 kilometers before coming down in the East Sea 930 km away from the launch site.

Officials in South Korea and Japan gave similar altitude and distance figures, raising the possibility that the North's claims are true, though the U.S. Pacific Command initially identified the North's missile as an intermediate-range class.

jschang@yna.co.kr
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