People watch a TV showing a file image of a North Korean missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Sept. 15, 2021. (Photo: AFP/VNA)

The KCNA said the missile, one of 5 top-priority tasks of a five-year plan for developing defense science and weapons systems set forth at the 8th Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea, was advanced according to an inexorable development process. The test-launch confirmed "the stability of the engine as well as of a missile fuel ampoule that has been introduced for the first time". The KCNA said the test showed that all technical specifications satisfied the design requirements.

This test, North Korea's sixth known major weapons test so far this year, occurred two weeks after North Korea launched two short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan.