North Korea says record test was new Hwasong-19 long-range missile

North Korea flexed its military muscle with the test of a huge new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile dubbed Hwasong-19, state media said on Friday, amid international uproar over its troops deployed to aid Russia in Ukraine.

State news agency KCNA lauded it as “the world’s strongest strategic missile”.

While questions remain over North Korea’s ability to guide such a missile and protect a nuclear warhead as it reenters the atmosphere, the Hwasong-19, like North Korea’s other latest ICBMs, demonstrated the range to strike nearly anywhere in the United States.

“The new-type ICBM proved before the world that the hegemonic position we have secured in the development and manufacture of nuclear delivery,” leader Kim Jong-un said while overseeing the launch, KCNA reported.

Thursday’s missile launch, just days before next week’s pivotal US presidential election, drew swift condemnation from Washington and its allies in South Korea, Japan and Europe, as well as the United Nations secretary general.