North Korea launches ballistic missile designed to threaten US   

North Korea launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday 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.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the missile test and was at the launch site, 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 towards 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.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea could have tested a new, solid-fuelled 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 on 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 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.

KCNA said the flight characteristics of this launch exceeded those registered for its previous missile launches but did not detail the differences.