SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of — North Korea’s state media say leader Kim Jong Un ordered his engineers to launch a new intercontinental ballistic missile with “courage” a day ahead of the flight test where it demonstrated its reach deep into the U.S. mainland.
State television on Wednesday broadcast a photo of Kim’s signed order where he wrote: “Test launch is approved. Taking place at the daybreak of Nov. 29! Fire with courage for the party and country!”
The North says Kim gave the order for the launch on Tuesday.
The ICBM launched early Wednesday morning was described as the Hwasong-15, with the capability to carry a nuclear warhead and with “significantly more” power than missiles it’s tested earlier. Outside governments and analysts concur the North made a jump in missile capability with the launch.