A U.S.-based website that monitors North Korea says Pyongyang is likely to soon announce the operational deployment of its Hwasong-18 solid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile(ICBM).

In a report posted on Tuesday, 38 North said the Hwasong-18’s second consecutive apparent test-flight success demonstrates that the missile system is in the late stages of development and may nearly be fully operational.

The report said the North may hint at the missile’s operational deployment as it had with “varying degrees of directness” for the Hwasong-15 and Hwasong-17 ICBMs, “although it may conduct one or two more flight tests first.”

The observer said that when deployed, the Hwasong-18 will incrementally add to the ongoing deployments of Hwasong-15 and -17 ICBMs to the extent allowed by the production capacity.

It added that although it is not much more advanced than the Hwasong-15 and Hwasong-17, the latest missile “will be somewhat more survivable in the field than the already-survivable road-mobile liquid ICBMs.”

The report was quick to stress, however, that the Hwasong-18 “will not be a game-changer and will not substantially boost the North’s ongoing ICBM threat to the U.S.”