Update | US and Seoul launch retaliatory missiles into sea, as North Korea’s Kim Jong-un laughs and calls ICBM his ‘July 4 gift’

The US Army and South Korean military have retaliated against North Korea’s launch of an apparent intercontinental ballistic missile, firing their own volley of missiles into South Korean territorial waters along the country’s eastern coastline, US Pacific Command said in a statement.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un meanwhile described the ICBM test as his independence day“gift” to “American bastards”.

After personally overseeing the launch, the Korean Central News Agency reported, “[Kim] said American bastards would be not very happy with this gift sent on the July 4 anniversary”.

Breaking into peals of laughter, it said, he “added that we should send them gifts once in a while to help break their boredom”.

The US-South-Korean launches on Wednesday were directly in response to “North Korea’s destabilising and unlawful actions,” Pacific Command said.

The US Army used its Army Tactical Missile System and South Korea used its Hyunmoo Missile II, which can be deployed rapidly and provide “deep strike precision capability, Pacific Command said.