North Korea claimed that Sunday’s intermediate-range strategic ballistic missile test was a success.
 
The North’s Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) said on Monday that the test launch of its new “Hwasong-12” went successfully.
 
The media outlet said the test was to confirm the capabilities of the mid- to long-range missile on which a heavyweight nuclear warhead can be mounted.  
 
It claimed the missile reached an altitude of two-thousand-111-point-five kilometers before flying 787 kilometers to hit the targeted area in open waters.
 
It added that the missile was launched at the highest possible angle considering the safety of neighboring countries.
 
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was said to have been at the launch site to oversee the test. He was cited as saying that nuclear weapons capabilities shall not be monopolized by the U.S. and he is sure the day will come for his regime to be able to take corresponding retaliatory measures against the U.S.
 
The young North Korean leader said the U.S.' mainland and its Pacific theater of command is within its striking range.
 
He also ordered his officials to develop diversified and advanced nuclear warheads and delivery mechanisms. 
 
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Sunday that the North launched a missile at 5:27 a.m. from Kusong located about 100 kilometers north of Pyongyang. The North's missile launch comes 15 days after it fired a missile on April 29th and four days after the launch of the Moon Jae-in administration in Seoul.

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