ERIC TALMADGE, AP
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch Monday ahead of an urgent meeting of the Security Council.
Guterres called the launch "a further troubling violation of Security Council resolutions" and urged North Korea to comply with its international obligations, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.
"The secretary-general appeals to the international community to continue to address this situation in a united manner," Haq said.
The United States, Japan and South Korea have requested the urgent council meeting. Seoul condemned what it called "serious military and security threats" and predicted more such tests.
The Security Council scheduled closed consultations on North Korea late Monday afternoon.
The banned missile test, which was conducted early Sunday, is seen as an implicit challenge to President Donald Trump, who has vowed a tough line on Pyongyang but has yet to release a strategy for dealing with a country whose nuclear ambitions have bedeviled U.S. leaders for decades.
North Korean state media said leader Kim Jong Un was at the site to observe the launch and expressed pleasure at the North's expansion of its strategic strike capabilities.
"These are serious military and security threats," Jeong Joon-hee, spokesman at the Ministry of Unification, told reporters. "Pyongyang has no intention of backing away from its goal to become a country with nuclear weapons."
A report on the launch carried early Monday by the North's Korean Central News Agency said Kim watched from an observation post and gave the order to fire the "Pukguksong-2," which it said was a "Korean style new type strategic weapon system."
It is believed to have flown about 500 kilometers (310 miles) before splashing down into the ocean in international waters.
The report said the test proved "the reliability and security" of a new mobile launching system, the solid fuel that was used and the guidance and control features of the ballistic missile. Solid fuel can give missiles longer range and make detecting them before launch more difficult because they can be readied faster than liquid fuel missiles.
The report also said the test verified control and guidance capabilities and said the missile can be "tipped with a nuclear warhead."
It suggested the launch conducted in a "lofted" style, which puts the missile into a high trajectory rather than a lower one that gives it more range, in order take "the security of the neighboring countries into consideration."
It added that Kim "expressed great satisfaction over the possession of another powerful nuclear attack means."
"Now our rocket industry has radically turned into high thrust solid fuel-powered engine from liquid fuel rocket engine and rapidly developed into a development- and creation-oriented industry, not just copying samples," he said. "Thanks to the development of the new strategic weapon system, our People's Army is capable of performing its strategic duties most accurately and rapidly in any space: under waters or on the land."
North Korea had warned it was ready to test its first intercontinental ballistic missile. The U.S. Strategic Command, however, said it detected and tracked what it assessed to be a medium- or intermediate-range missile. The reports of the launch came as Trump was hosting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and just days before the North is to mark the birthday of leader Kim Jong Un's late father, Kim Jong Il.