Kim personally monitored Wednesday's Musudan missile test, calling it a "great event."
"We have the sure capability to attack in an overall and practical way the Americans in the Pacific operation theater," Kim was quoted as saying by North Korea's official KCNA news agency.
The Musudan
The Musudan has a theoretical range of anywhere between 2,500 and 4,000 kilometers (1,550 to 2,500 miles), the upper estimate covering US military bases as far as Guam.
North Korea tested two Musudans, one of which flew 400 kilometers into the Sea of Japan (East Sea).
KCNA reported that the missile was fired at a high angle to simulate its full range and had reached a maximum height of over 1,400 kilometers.
The success of the test "marks an important occasion in further strengthening the nuclear attack capacity of our state," Kim said.
Kim Jong Un described the test as a "great event"
International responses
The United States, NATO and Japan denounced the test, and South Korea vowed to push for tighter sanctions on Pyongyang.
Responding to Wednesday's launch, China's foreign ministry had cautioned against "any action that may escalate tension" and called for a resumed dialogue on Pyongyang's nuclear drive.
US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, meanwhile, stressed the importance of strengthening US missile defense systems, including those deployed by regional allies South Korea and Japan - a strategy strongly opposed by China.
The US and Japan, after consulting South Korea, requested a closed-door briefing from the UN Secretariat on North Korea's reported firing of the two midrange missiles.
UN replies
The Security Council - which has imposed five rounds of sanctions on North Korea - condemned three previous launches on June 1, calling them "a grave violation" of a ban on all ballistic missile activity that contributed to the country's nuclear weapons program.
The Council members were united in "deep concern and opposition" to the test, which was a clear violation of UN resolutions, France's deputy UN ambassador Alexis Lamek said. Existing UN measures prohibit North Korea from using ballistic missile technology.
jbh/bk (AFP, AP)
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North Korea in pictures: a rare glimpse into the isolated country
On the road
The reporters from AP covered over 2,150 kilometers (1,336 miles), in a country of barely 25,000 kilometers of roads, merely 724 of those paved. They came back with only their photos as evidence of the life in the northern part of the secluded country. In the picture: A woman walks along a road southeast of Pyongyang in North Korea's North Hwanghae province.
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North Korea in pictures: a rare glimpse into the isolated country
Cooking by the fire
A North Korean man sits by a cooking fire he built to roast potatoes and chicken in the town of Samjiyon, in Ryanggang province. Possibly more than any other populated place on earth, North Korea is terra incognita, but the AP team was granted access to see North Korea and travel through places that, they were told, no foreign journalist and few foreigners had been allowed to see before.
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North Korea in pictures: a rare glimpse into the isolated country
The revolution mountain
A boulder lies on a path near the peak of Mount Paektu in North Korea's Ryanggang province. North Koreans venerate Mount Paektu for its natural beauty, but more importantly because it is considered the home of the North Korean revolution. They also consider the mountain sacred as the place of their ancestral origin.
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North Korea in pictures: a rare glimpse into the isolated country
Leaving the capital
Farmers walk in a rainstorm with their cattle near the town of Hyesan, North Korea in Ryanggang province. "To get out of Pyongyang, we weaved our way around buses, streetcars, the black sedans of party officials and fleets of colorful new taxis that have over the past few years become commonplace," says Eric Talmadge, one of the jourmalists who participated in the journey.
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North Korea in pictures: a rare glimpse into the isolated country
Outside of Pyongyang
Young North Korean schoolchildren help to fix pot holes in a rural road in North Korea's North Hamgyong province. The country's best road is the 200-kilometer stretch of highway connecting the capital to the east coast port city of Wonsan. Beyond Wonsan, potholes, cracks or sudden patches of dirt road make travel a bumpy experience.
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North Korea in pictures: a rare glimpse into the isolated country
Once productive - now eerily quiet
North Korean residents walk on along a river in the town of Kimchaek, in North Korea's North Hamgyong province. The once-productive cities along its east coast, like the coal mining town of Kilju and the nearby city of Kimchaek - built around a sprawling but now eerily quiet ironworks complex - have become a rust belt, gritty and relentlessly gray.
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North Korea in pictures: a rare glimpse into the isolated country
Well hidden poverty
The remains of lunch left on a restaurant table in the city of Wonsan, North Korea. The government "minders" accompanied the journalists throughout the entire trip. Like foreign tourists, the AP team only saw a bare trace of the deprivation residents experience. Most of the country's citizens cannot afford proper housing, let alone a visit to a restaurant.
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North Korea in pictures: a rare glimpse into the isolated country
It's the little things
The journalists' itineary was dictated by North Korea's terms. There would be no stopping to interview random people. "It's quite possible none of them had ever seen an American before," said AP's Eric Talmadge, "but our presence went unacknowledged. No glances were exchanged. No words were spoken." Here boys are playing soccer in the town of Hyesan, in the northern Ryanggang province.
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North Korea in pictures: a rare glimpse into the isolated country
Local food, local beer
North Korean men share a picnic lunch and North Korean-brewed and bottled Taedonggang beer along the road in North Korea's North Hwanghae province. This year, according to United Nations experts, the country could come closer to feeding itself than it has in decades. But hunger remains a serious problem, with a third of North Korean children stunted in growth due to poor nutrition.
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North Korea in pictures: a rare glimpse into the isolated country
Providing food is a constant struggle
A farmer carries a fully grown cabbage after harvesting it from the main crop which will be harvested early November, on the outskirts of Pyongyang. About four-fifths of North Korea's land is too rugged to farm. Providing enough food to feed the nation is a struggle for North Korea, which suffered a near cataclysmic famine in the 1990s.
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North Korea in pictures: a rare glimpse into the isolated country
No detour allowed
A man works on his car as others sit next to the Wonsan Sea in North Korea. For the most part, AP's reporters were not allowed to detour from their pre-approved route, which, to no one's surprise, did not include nuclear facilities or prison camps.
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North Korea in pictures: a rare glimpse into the isolated country
Never really free
A group of young North Koreans enjoys a picnic on the beach in Wonsan. "Even on the loneliest of lonely highways, we would never be without a 'minder,' whose job was to monitor and supervise our activities," Talmadge explains. "We were not to take photographs of any checkpoints or military installations."
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North Korea in pictures: a rare glimpse into the isolated country
Without words
North Korean people rest next to the railroad tracks in a town in North Korea's North Hamgyong province. "Though we would not get to know the people along the way, the country itself had a great deal to say. And it was opening up before us," Talmadge said upon his return. "We had been granted unprecedented access."
Author: Dana Regev
