North Korea launches ballistic missile over Japan – live updates

South Korea’s military says intermediate-range ballistic missile was fired east from the North’s capital, Pyongyang. Follow the latest developments here. 2.56am BST The US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, has condemned the missile launch, saying China and Russia must do more to put pressure on Kim Jong-un:North Korea’s provocative missile launch represents the second time the people of Japan, a treaty ally of the United States, have been directly threatened in recent weeks.These continued provocations only deepen North Korea’s diplomatic and economic isolation. 2.50am BST The top commander of US nuclear forces says his assumption is that North Korea’s most recent nuclear test, on 3 September, was a hydrogen bomb, Associated Press reports: Air Force General John E Hyten, commander of Strategic Command, told reporters that he assumes from the size of the underground explosion and other factors that it was a hydrogen bomb – which is a leap beyond the fission, or atomic, bombs North Korea has previously tested.Shortly after the 3 September test, North Korea claimed it had exploded a hydrogen bomb, and while US officials have not contradicted this, they have not confirmed it, either. Administration officials had indicated they saw nothing to contradict the North’s claim. Hyten went further, saying the characteristics of the test made him think it was an H-bomb:When I look at a thing that size, I as a military officer assume that it’s a hydrogen bomb. I have to. I have to make that assumption. What I saw equates to a hydrogen bomb. I saw the event. I saw the indications that came from that event. I saw the size, I saw the reports, and therefore to me I’m assuming it was a hydrogen bomb.”Pressed further, Hyten said he was not confirming that North Korea’s was a hydrogen bomb.“I’m just saying the size of the weapon shows that there was clearly a secondary explosion,” he said. Unlike a fission, or atomic, bomb, a hydrogen bomb is built with two “stages”, or explosive devices that work in tandem to create fusion. Continue reading…
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