North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has overseen the latest in a series of tests
North Korea says it has successfully tested an engine designed for an intercontinental ballistic missile.The new type of engine would "guarantee" the ability to launch a nuclear strike on the US mainland, the KCNA news agency said.
The country would now be able to "keep any cesspool of evils in the earth including the US mainland within our striking range," Kim was quoted as saying.
US state department spokesman Mark Toner replied that North Korea should "refrain from actions and rhetoric that further destabilise the region and focus instead on taking concrete steps toward fulfilling its commitments and international obligations,"
The BBC's Seoul correspondent has this :
"Step by step, North Korea is completing the tasks needed to have a nuclear-tipped missile capable of striking the US.
In recent weeks, it has said it has made the heat-resistant materials necessary. It broadcast pictures of Kim Jong-un looking on approvingly at what it claimed was a small nuclear warhead. Now it says it has the necessary rocket engine.
It is impossible to verify the claims, though on Tuesday the South Korean government accepted that North Korea had made crucial advances.
Next month, there is a grand political congress in Pyongyang to which Kim Jong-un is building up with fearsome rhetoric. He has threatened a fifth nuclear test. It would not be a surprise if that happened."
Huff and puff by North Korea or more sinister events to come? The uncertainty will not help the fragile global picture right now.
More from the BBC here and Reuters here
N Korea up to no good again