North Korean state media said Kim Jong Un supervised a Saturday launch of an intermediate-range missile toward the East Sea that it claimed hit a target 1,000 kilometres away. South Korea assessed the flight at more than 700 kilometres.
The Korean Central News Agency said on Sunday that Kim Jong Un oversaw a firing drill of an intermediate-range strategic missile toward the East Sea at dawn on Saturday. KCNA described the launch as training for troops operating a hypersonic strategic weapon system.
State media said the missile, fired toward the northeast, hit a target 1,000 kilometres away in the sea off the east coast. South Korea’s military said it detected a ballistic missile from the Wonsan area and assessed that it flew more than 700 kilometres.
Kim was quoted as calling the drill a form of deterrent and saying Pyongyang must keep developing its nuclear war deterrent. KCNA photographs showed him at the launch with his daughter Ju Ae and his wife Ri Sol Ju.
Kim Yo Jong said South Korea and Japan had failed to track the weapon and claimed a wave-like trajectory exposed limits in their tracking. Those claims come from North Korean state media and have not been independently confirmed.
Seoul’s defence ministry responded in later Yonhap updates. The launch adds to a series of tests that South Korean and Japanese forces monitor from the peninsula’s east coast.