Kim Jong-un’s North Korean ‘war machine’ will continue unless stricter economic bans are imposed on the country said James Jeffrey, the former US ambassador to Iraq and Turkey.

Speaking to Fox News, Mr Jeffrey said the US would not give into ‘outrageous threats’ and that no ‘sane’ person would think the US wanted to ‘conquer’ the secretive state. 

He said: “There’s zero chance we will give in to such outrageous threats, there’s no sane person including Moscow and Beijing who believes we have any intention of attacking North Korea to conquer the place.

“The only reason we would use military force is to get North Korea to stop its nuclear program.” 

The ex-diplomat added that North Korea’s neighbours Russia and China need to do more to economically cripple the country. 

He continued: “And we’ll move closer and closer to that if China in particular but also Russia, which has a border with North Korea, does not act to cut back oil and other strategic materials keeping the North Korean war machine going.”

Kim Jong-un has been celebrating an ICBM missile launch since last Tuesday, which saw a missile soar 2,500 miles into the atmosphere before crashing down into the Sea of Japan. 

And now US and South Korean officials warned it could have reached any point of the US mainland - including Washington DC.

Yeo Suk-Joo, policy chief at the South Korean Defence Ministry, said: “If it were fired at a normal angle, it would be capable of flying over 8,000 miles. 

“That means it can reach Washington DC.”

Trump’s national security advisor H.R. McMaster told Fox News that Kim Jong-un’s ‘decision-making’ is not worth betting a US city over. 

He said: “I don’t think you or anybody else is willing to bet the farm or a US city on the decision making, rational decision making of Kim Jong-un.”