North Korea said on Thursday that a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile(ICBM) was launched the previous day with leader Kim Jong-un present.

The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, said the missile flew one-thousand-one-point-two kilometers for 74 minutes and 51 seconds up to a maximum altitude of six-thousand-648-point-four kilometers before hitting a pre-set area in the open waters of the East Sea.

Wednesday marked the second time Pyongyang had test-fired a Hwasong-18 ICBM since April.

The paper said Kim inspected the launch on site and vowed to continuously engage in a strong military offensive until what he termed “the U.S. imperialists and South Korean puppet traitors” admit defeat and abandon their hostile policies toward the North.

The daily said the latest launch was aimed at protecting the nation’s safety and peace in the region from the calamities of a nuclear war. It added that the launch was part of efforts to strengthen the North’s right to self-defense in a bid to thoroughly repress the dangerous military activities of enemy forces.