Nord-Koreanske rakettdeler falt ned i område med sivil lufttrafikk - Curt Lewis

Airliner flew through North Korean missile's flight path just TEN MINUTES before it splashed down in the sea

• Air France Flight 293 came minutes away from disaster, official says
• Flight from Tokyo to Paris passed through North Korean ICBM path Friday
• Rogue regime does not publicize missile tests in advance as other nations do

A commercial airliner with 323 passengers and crew on board flew through the re-entry path of North Korea's latest long-range ballistic missile test, according to a new report.

Air France Flight 293 from Tokyo to Paris came just minutes away from disaster during the missile test on Friday, when North Korea launched an ICBM into the Sea of Japan, a US official told ABC News.

Flight data from the plane showed that the plane passed through the path of the Hwasong-14 just 10 minutes prior to the missile as it plummeted down from space.

Air France said in a statement that the flight operated without incident, and the passengers and crew of the Boeing 777 would have been oblivious to the near-miss.

Air France Flight 293 from Tokyo to Paris came just minutes away from disaster during the missile test on Friday, when North Korea launched an ICBM into the Sea of Japan (file photo)

North Korea has recently carried out another test launch of its Hwasong-14 missile amid heightened tensions between North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-un (pictured) and the US

The secretive North's leader, Kim Jong Un, supervised the midnight launch of the missile on Friday night and called it a 'stern warning' to the United States that it would not be safe from destruction if it tried to attack, the official KCNA news agency said.

US President Donald Trump brushed off Kim's so-called warning in a cabinet meeting on Monday.

'We'll handle North Korea. We're going to be able to handle them. It will be handled. We handle everything,' Trump said as he sat alongside Defense Secretary James Mattis

Unlike other countries, North Korea does not issue advisories ahead of missile test launches.

The flight path of Air France Flight 293 on Friday is seen. A US official said the plane came within just 10 minutes of potential collision with a North Korean missile

A man walks in front of a public TV screen broadcasting news of North Korea's test-firing of its second intercontinental ballistic missile in Tokyo, Japan

The US was set to test launch a Minuteman III early Wednesday morning, but announced the flight path well in advance.

Friday's secret missile launch was the second test of an ICBM for North Korea, and indicated the regime's missile could reach the continental US.

The Hwasong-14, named after the Korean word for Mars, reached an altitude of 2,314.6 miles and flew 620 miles before landing in the waters off the Korean peninsula's east coast, according to North Korea's state news agency.

Independent experts agreed that on a flattened trajectory the missile could have reached much of the US.

However, US and South Korean experts who reviewed Japanese footage of the missile's re-entry said Tuesday that North Korea will have to refine its warhead vehicle for it to survive the heat of re-entry.

Michael Elleman, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the 38 North Analyst think tank, said it appears that the 're-entry vehicle' that would carry a warhead back into Earth's atmosphere from space had failed during the second test.

'Most likely it broke up into pieces,' he said.

'Prior to completely breaking up, it appears to have been shedding some of the outer layers, and then it must have finally disintegrated.'

The Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency reportedly now believes North Korea will be able to deploy an ICBM capable of carrying a nuclear weapon as soon as next year - two years earlier than the agency's previous estimate.