Star Metro - North Korea's Kim oversees ICBM engine test: state media

The country's Missile Administration "conducted another ground jet test of high-thrust solid-fuel engine using the composite carbon fiber material on September 8," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported in an English dispatch on Tuesday.

"The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un oversaw the important test," it said.

It was the "ninth ground jet test" and "the last one in the development process," according to KCNA.

The news agency quoted Kim as saying that the new rocket engine "heralds a significant change in expanding and strengthening the nuclear strategic forces" of North Korea.

Images carried by state media showed Kim looking at the flame from the engine test with binoculars. Another photo showed what appeared to be a red horizontal flame from the test.

The test came days after Kim returned to North Korea from a trip to Beijing to attend a military parade marking Japan's surrender in World War II, where he stood side by side with his Chinese and Russian counterparts Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.

North Korea has for years staged test flights of long-range missiles apparently able to reach the continental United States.

Pyongyang has also rolled out solid-fuel variants that are easier to mobilise, conceal and launch rapidly compared with liquid-fuel missiles.

North Korea has made repeatedly stated this year that it has no intention of giving up its nuclear weapons, and called South Korean President Lee Jae Myung a "hypocrite" over his remarks calling for a "path to denuclearisation".

"The North would remain unchanged in our stand not to abandon the nuclear weapons, the prestige and honor of the state," Pyongyang said in August.

S.Morin--SMC