Developing advanced solid-fuel missiles that are faster to launch and harder to detect and destroy in advance has long been Kim’s goal.

The official Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim defended North Korea’s sanctions-busting attack, calling it “an appropriate military action that fully meets the purpose of informing rivals of our will to take counter-action.”

While it was stated that the test “updated the latest records regarding North Korea’s strategic missile capability”, Kim said that his country “will never change its line of strengthening its nuclear forces”.

Washington criticized the launch as “a clear violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions,” National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement.

Seoul said regional security allies Seoul, Washington and Tokyo would respond with joint military exercises involving U.S. strategic assets.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol also said the country would “set new independent sanctions” against the North and work with partners and the UN to punish Pyongyang’s “habitual violations of Security Council resolutions.”

divert attention

North Korea’s missile launch “appears to have been carried out to divert attention from international criticism of its troop deployment,” Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.

Seoul has long accused the nuclear-armed North of sending weapons to help Moscow fight against Kiev and has accused Pyongyang of deploying troops en masse after Kim Jong Un signed a joint defense pact with Russian President Vladimir Putin in June. He claimed to have taken action.

troop deployment Seoul posed a “significant security threat” on Wednesday, as US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called on the North to withdraw its troops.

Yang added that the duration and altitude of Thursday’s missile launch showed that the North was “trying to evaluate whether a heavy ICBM with multiple warheads could actually reach the US mainland.”

South Korea’s military had warned lawmakers the day before that “preparations for the ICBM-class long-range missile are almost complete” and that the launch could be aimed at testing the North’s atmospheric reentry technology.

Seoul has warned that Russia could provide Pyongyang with new technology or expertise in exchange for weapons and troops to help it fight Ukraine.

Ahn Chan-il, a researcher who directs the World Institute for North Korean Studies, told AFP it was possible that “Russia is actually providing new technology to re-enter the atmosphere.”

But Ahn added that it was more likely that Thursday’s test was conducted to distract from the troop deployment and attract “the world’s attention ahead of the US presidential election.”

Seoul, a major arms exporter, said it was reviewing whether to continue arms exports. sending weapons directly to Ukraine In response, this is something it has previously resisted due to long-standing domestic policy that prevents it from sending weapons to active conflicts.

North Korea has denied sending troops to Russia, but in initial comments reported in state media last week, its deputy foreign minister said if such a deployment took place, it would be in line with international law.

Pyongyang is banned from testing using ballistic technology due to UN sanctions, but leader Kim has stepped up testing this year and experts have warned he could test the weapons before handing them to Russia.