North Korea says test launch was latest Hwasong-18 ICBM.

North Korea tested its latest Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), state media reported, saying the weapon is the core of its nuclear strike force and a warning to the United States and other adversaries.

The Hwasong-18 is the North's first ICBM to use solid propellants, which can allow faster deployment of missiles during a war. It was first flown in April.

Wednesday's launch, reported at the time by militaries in South Korea and Japan, was condemned by the U.S. and leaders in Seoul and Tokyo, among others.

The United Nations Security Council, which has passed resolutions banning North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons development, will meet publicly on Thursday to discuss the missile launch.

Accusing Washington of increasing tensions by deploying submarines and bombers to the Korean peninsula and conducting nuclear war planning with South Korean allies, KCNA said the military security situation "has reached the phase of nuclear crisis beyond the Cold War era."

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test, and said the country would take increasingly strong measures to protect itself until the U.S. and its allies dropped their hostile policies, the KCNA report said.

Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in a report for the Seoul-based NK PRO, which monitors North Korea, that iw was "remarkable" that both of North Korea's Hwasong-18 tests to date appear to have been complete successes despite the country’s lack of experience with other large, multi-stage solid-propellant missiles.

Source: www.reuters.com

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