KCNA said Kim Jong Un oversaw a Saturday intermediate-range missile launch from eastern North Korea that hit a sea target 1,000 km away, while South Korea assessed a flight of more than 700 km.
North Korea fired an intermediate-range missile on Saturday in a drill overseen by Kim Jong Un, the state news agency KCNA reported on Sunday, according to Reuters. KCNA said the missile was launched from eastern North Korea and hit a target 1,000 kilometres offshore.
The agency said the drill was meant to train troops operating a hypersonic strategic weapon system and to assess reliability, efficiency and mobility. South Korea's military said on Saturday it detected a ballistic missile and assessed that it flew more than 700 kilometres toward the sea east of the peninsula.
Kim Yo Jong, a senior Workers' Party official, said South Korea and Japan had failed to track the flight and cited a wave-like trajectory mode. AFP reported that she said artificial intelligence had been introduced into a missile able to change its flight path at low altitude. Reuters' KCNA account did not independently verify that claim.
Kim Jong Un said Pyongyang must keep working so adversaries recognise the reliability of its strategic weapons, and he restated that a nuclear deterrent was essential, KCNA said. The launch followed a landmine blast in the Demilitarized Zone that wounded South Korean soldiers. Seoul blamed the North and sought an apology; Kim Yo Jong called the accusation groundless.
Reuters said North Korea has carried out more than 10 missile tests this year. The conflicting range figures from KCNA and the South Korean military were not reconciled in the early Sunday reports.