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Seoul, South Korea • North Korea fired a solid-fuel ballistic missile Sunday that can be harder for outsiders to detect before launch and later said the test was hailed as perfect by leader Kim Jong Un.
The official Korean Central News Agency confirmed Monday that the missile was a Pukguksong-2, a medium- to long-range ballistic missile also launched in February. The Pukguksong-2 is a land-based version of a submarine-launched missile. The missile advances North Korea's weapons capabilities because solid-fuel missiles can be fired faster and more secretly than those using liquid fuel, which must be added separately and transported to a launch site using trucks that can be seen by satellites.
The rocket was fired in South Phyongan province and flew eastward 310 miles, an official from South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said. It reached an altitude of 347 miles, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The U.S. Pacific Command said it tracked the missile before it fell into the sea.
Sunday's launch followed one a week earlier of a rocket that flew higher and for a longer time than any missile the North has previously launched and could one day reach targets in Hawaii and Alaska. North Korea called that launch a success test of a missile that could carry a heavy nuclear warhead.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday it was too early to know if the international pressures being exerted on North Korea to discourage its weapons programs were having an impact.
"We're early in the stages of applying the economic pressure as well as the diplomatic pressure to the regime in North Korea," Tillerson said on "Fox News Sunday." "Hopefully they will get the message that the path of continuing their nuclear arms program is not a pathway to security or certainly prosperity. The ongoing testing is disappointing. It's disturbing."
South Korea's new president, Moon Jae-in, held a National Security Council meeting to discuss Sunday's launch. He did not make a public statement after the meeting.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the launch a "challenge to the world" that tramples international efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear and missile problems peacefully. He vowed to bring up the issue at this week's G-7 summit in Italy.
At the United Nations, diplomats from the U.S., Japan and South Korea said they requested a Security Council consultation on the missile test. The closed discussion will take place Tuesday.