N. Korea says leader supervised test-firing of ‘new weapon’

On Saturday, North Korea fired twoprojectiles believed to be short-range ballistic missiles from its easterncoast into the East Sea, the fifth such launch since July 25.

They flew around 400 kilometers ata maximum altitude of 48 km, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The launch came shortly after U.S.President Donald Trump said he had received another «very beautiful»letter from Kim.

After receiving a report on a newweapon system, Kim «gave an instruction to test it immediately» and«looked round the new weapon at the launching site,» the KoreanCentral News Agency (KCNA) said.

It did not give further details on what type of weaponit was, only to state that the analysis of the test-fire result «provedthat the new weapon system's advantageous and powerful demand of the design wasperfectly met.»

It added that the new weapon was«developed to suit the terrain condition» and comes with a character«different from the existing weapon systems.»

Observers raised the possibilitythat the North fired a new type of tactical surface-to-surface missiles thathave never been disclosed.

Pyongyang has claimed that it firednew tactical guided weapons in its July 25 firing and that it lobbed a newlydeveloped large-caliber multiple launch guided rocket system in two subsequentlaunches on July 31 and Aug. 2.

Following the latest firings, Trumpwrote on Twitter that Kim told him in a new letter that he wants to resume thedenuclearization talks once the joint exercise between the United States andSouth Korea is over, and that its short range missiles «testing would stopwhen the exercises end.»

The allies began their jointmilitary drill last week, which the North has long condemned as a rehearsal forinvasion.