On Friday, North Korea announced that it has been testing a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), an arms breakthrough that could "radically promote" its forces as it is the type of weapon that could permit swift missile launch.

North Korean state media said that dictator Kim Jong Un had guided Thursday weapon-testing, and apparently sent a warning to political opponents that they would "experience a clearer security crisis, and constantly strike extreme uneasiness and horror into them by taking fatal and offensive counter-actions until they abandon their senseless thinking and reckless acts."