North Korea's claim to be developing missiles which capable of striking America has been dismissed by President-elect Donald Trump, through his twitter post. Trump derided the claim by saying "It won't happen" in response to North Korea's Kim Jong-un who said the preparations were in the final stage.
It was not clear, however, if he was expressing doubts about North Korea's capabilities or carving a preventative action. The President-elect also berated China for failing to help rein in its ally, North Korea according to BBC.
"China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the U.S. in totally one-sided trade, but won't help with North Korea. Nice!" Mr Trump tweeted.
China's Foreign affairs ministry spokesman said that Beijing's efforts on denuclearisation were pretty obvious. The country had participate proactively in UN discussion and jointly passed several resolutions, the spokesman added.
Mr Kim, in a televised New Year message on Sunday said North Korea was close to experiment long-range missiles that able of carrying nuclear warheads. The country (North Korea) according to Kim was now a "military power of the East that cannot be touched by even the strongest enemy".
Two nuclear tests had been conducted over the last year by North Korea and has raised fears of the significant nuclear advances. However, it has never successfully test-fired long-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
North Korea's ability to launch a missile equipped with a nuclear warhead that able to reach the US "is still a long way off - perhaps five to 10 years," explained Prof Siegfried Hecker of Stanford University in California told the BBC in September last year.
He also worries that North Korea's technological ability increases the likelihood of the spread of nuclear weapons to "non-state actors" or "terrorists".
Although North Korea claims to have created heat-tolerant materials which would allow long-range missiles to re-enter the atmosphere, many Western experts have cast doubt on this.
