Prime minister s office. let s go live to cnn s paula newton paula hancocks, i should say. she s joining us from seoul, south korea. paula, tell us what s going on. this is significant coming right in the midst of this nato summit. reporter: that s right, wolf. north korea always looks at timing when it does things like this. according to japan s ministry of defense, they believe this could be a new type of icbm, intercontinent tall ballistic missile which could have the ability to hit main land. compared to its last icbm back in november 2017, the altitude is more significant. the amount of time it spent in flight is longer. 71 minutes in flight and the range also longer. so certainly it is of concern. south korean president moon jae-in strongly condemned it.
Successful. experts and south korean officials believe that was an engine test which could have been used in icbm, an intercontinent intercontinental ballistic missile. what this christmas gift could be. what this end of year deadline means and what this new path north korea it suggests it will take. a satellite launch could be a possibility. but some suggest that could be too provocative a move. but we are speculating on what exactly north korea is going to do after it comes out with some cryptic messages. officials around the world really struggling and trying to decipher what they will do next. paula hancocks following it in there seoul.
Russia claims that successfully launched an intercontinent at ballistic missile capable of carrying so much nuclear power it could wipe out texas. moscow released this video. it is one of the new weapon systems that vladimir putin claims is invincible. cnn s brian todd has more on just how concerned u.s. officials are by this new threat. brian? ana, we re told we re watching the development very closely. this is fire power that putin has been krouing about for weeks and now his missile threat to the u.s. has taken another it is powerful, provocative, and now it s on public display.
Surprise and about that warning from former president or outgoing president obama to incoming president trump about just this. well, in fact, this was a two-stage intercontinent is ballistic missile. immediately afterwards, we were told by u.s. officials, pentagon and intelligence officials that it was a medium range ballistic missile. they did not realize immediately this was the first icbm, a two-stage missile which was capable if the trajectory were flattened out of reaching alaska at least. it went more than 1700 miles out into space. that is way farther than our orbiting space station. and it was really unexpected. they expected a missile test but they did not expect one that included an icbm. that was not foreseen. and it was on a mobile launcher. if you were considering a
States that its missiles are intended to deliver nuclear weapons to strike cities in the united states, south korea and japan. and now, it has greater capacity to do so. that s u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley again showing just how seriously the administration takes north korea s missile launch test. andrea mitchell remains with us and getting us victor cha who just penned the right way to play the china card on new york. and blues clingner now a north korea expert at the heritage foundation s asian study center. thank you all for being with us. andrea, you have new reporting about the missile launch taking u.s. intelligence agencies by surprise and about that warning from former president or outgoing president obama to incoming president trump about just this. well, in fact, this was a two-stage intercontinent is ballistic missile. immediately afterwards, we were told by u.s. officials, pentagon and intelligence officials that