North Korea endangers whole world, take action against Pyongyang, US tells China, Russia

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson accused North Korea on Friday of threatening the entire world, after Pyongyang fired a missile over Japan for the second time in under a month in defiance of international pressure over its missile and nuclear programmes.

In the latest attempt to deal with an issue that has repeatedly frustrated world powers, the UN Security Council was due to meet at 3 pm ET (1900 GMT) on Friday to discuss the missile launch, at the request of the United States and Japan.

The council's 15 members unanimously stepped up sanctions against North Korea over a nuclear bomb test it staged on September 3, imposing a ban on North Korea's textile exports and capping its imports of crude oil.

North Korea has launched dozens of missiles under leader Kim Jong Un as it accelerates a weapons programme designed to give it the ability to target the United States with a powerful, nuclear-tipped missile.

Tillerson said in a speech to foreign officials that the tests threaten the world and stressed the United States was working closely with regional allies Japan and South Korea.

"In East Asia, an increasingly aggressive and isolated regime in North Korea threatens democracies in South Korea, Japan, and more importantly, and more recently, has expanded those threats to the United States, endangering the entire world," Tillerson said.

On Thursday, Tillerson called on China, Pyongyang's only ally, and Russia to apply more pressure on North Korea by "taking direct actions of their own."

But Beijing pushed back.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying denied that China held the key to easing tension on the Korean peninsula and said that duty lay with the parties directly involved. She also reiterated China's position that sanctions on North Korea are only effective if paired with talks.

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The latest missile flew over Hokkaido in northern Japan and landed in the Pacific about 2,000 km (1,240 miles) to the east, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.

It travelled about 3,700 km (2,300 miles) in total, according to South Korea's military, far enough to reach the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, which the North has threatened before.
"The range of this test was significant since North Korea demonstrated that it could reach Guam with this missile," the Union of Concerned Scientists advocacy group said in a statement. However, the accuracy of the missile, still at an early stage of development, was low, it said.

Two tests in July were for long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching at least parts of the U.S. mainland. North Korea also staged its sixth and most powerful nuclear bomb test earlier this month.

Last month, North Korea fired an intermediate range missile from a similar area near the capital Pyongyang that also flew over Hokkaido into the ocean.

Warning announcements about the latest missile blared around 7 a.m. (2200 GMT Thursday) in parts of northern Japan, while many residents received alerts on their mobile phones or saw warnings on TV telling them to seek refuge.

The US military said soon after the launch it had detected a single intermediate range ballistic missile but it did not pose a threat to North America or Guam, which lies 3,400 km (2,110 miles) from North Korea.

The missile reached an altitude of about 770 km (480 miles) and flew for about 19 minutes, according to South Korea's military.

On global markets, shares and other risk assets barely moved and gold fell as traders paid little attention to the latest missile test, shifting their focus to where and when interest rates will go up.