North Korea launches a new ballistic missile designed to threaten US

North Korea has launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile in its first test in almost a year of a weapon designed to threaten the US mainland and occurring days ahead of the US election.

South Korea, meanwhile, announced new export controls on materials needed to produce solid-fuel missiles in order to restrict North Korea's ballistic missile development, Seoul's foreign ministry said on Thursday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the missile test and was at the launch site on Thursday, calling the launch “an appropriate military action” to show North Korea’s ''resolve to respond to its enemies’ moves'' that have threatened the North’s safety, according to its Defence Ministry.

The United States, South Korea and Japan had also identified the weapon as an ICBM and condemned the launch as raising tensions.

The launch came as Washington warned that North Korean troops in Russian uniforms are heading toward Ukraine, likely to augment Russian forces and join the war.

North Korea confirmed the launch hours after its neighbours detected the firing of what they suspected was a new, more agile weapon targeting the mainland US. The statement was unusually quick since North Korea usually describes its weapons tests a day after they occur.

“I affirm that the DPRK will never change its line of bolstering up its nuclear forces,” Kim said, according to a North Korean Defence Ministry statement carried by state media. DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.

'A flagrant violation'

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said North Korea could have tested a new, solid-fueled long-range ballistic missile. Missiles with built-in solid propellants are easier to move and hide and can be launched quicker than liquid-propellant weapons.

JCS spokesperson Lee Sung Joon said the launch was possibly timed to the US election in an attempt to strengthen North Korea's future bargaining power. He said the North Korean missile was launched at a high angle, apparently to avoid neighbouring countries.

Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters the missile's flight duration of 86 minutes and its maximum altitude of more than 7,000 kilometres (4,350 miles) exceeded corresponding data from previous North Korean missile tests. Lee, the South Korean military spokesperson, said South Korea has a similar assessment on Thursday's launch.

US National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett had called the launch “a flagrant violation” of multiple UN Security Council resolutions that “needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilising the security situation in the region.”

Savett said the US will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and its South Korean and Japanese allies.

Both South Korea and Japan condemned the North Korean launch for posing a threat to international peace and they said they're closely coordinating with the US over the latest North Korean weapons test.

Lee said that South Korea and the US plan “sufficient” bilateral military exercises and trilateral ones involving Japan in response to North Korean threats.

South Korea also announced new export controls on materials needed to produce solid-fuel missiles in order to restrict North Korea's ballistic missile development, Seoul's foreign ministry said on Thursday.

The export controls will cover 15 items that North Korea finds difficult to produce on its own, such as fuselages and combustion tubes, and is expected to tighten the sanctions net targeting North Korea by reinforcing existing international export controls, the ministry said in a statement.