김정

North Korea leader Kim Jong-un visits a military academy in this photo released by North Korea's Central News Agency on Oct. 6. Yonhap

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un confirmed the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Thursday, describing it as demonstrating the country's "counteraction will" against its enemies.

The remarks came about five hours after the South Korean military said the North fired an ICBM on a lofted trajectory into the East Sea earlier in the day in its first launch of such a missile this year.

At the launch site, Kim said the test-fire is "an appropriate military action" that aimed to inform its enemies of his country's counteraction will, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"I affirm that the DPRK will never change its line of bolstering up its nuclear forces," he said in a statement carried by the KCNA, using the acronym of North Korea's official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Kim also said the ICBM launch is "an indispensable process" for developing its strategic attack capabilities against a "dangerous tightening" of its rivals' nuclear alliance and military maneuvers.

In the same dispatch, a North Korean defense ministry spokesperson said the ICBM launch was "a very crucial test," conducted under Kim's order, and demonstrated the "modernity and creditability" of the North's strategic deterrent.

South Korea's military said it believes the North fired a new type of solid-fuel ICBM, a move seen as aimed at gaining leverage ahead of the November U.S. presidential elections and diverting attention from the criticism of its troop deployment to Russia. (Yonhap)