North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, personally witnessed the test-firing of a “new type” of intercontinental ballistic missile to strengthen the country’s nuclear deterrence against US “imperialists,” official media claimed Friday.

The launch on Thursday was Pyongyang’s first full-range launch of Kim’s most powerful missiles since 2017, and it looks to have traveled higher and farther than any prior ICBM test by the nuclear-armed country.

According to KCNA, the test launch of the “new kind of intercontinental ballistic missile,” the Hwasong-17, was carried out under the “direct instruction” of Chairman Kim.

The Hwasong-17 is a massive intercontinental ballistic missile that was initially displayed in October 2020 and has been termed a “monster missile” by experts. It had never been successfully tested before, and the launch elicited instant condemnation from Pyongyang’s neighbors and the United States.

Official media published images of Kim, dressed in his trademark black leather jacket and dark sunglasses, strolling across the tarmac in front of a massive missile carried on an 11-axle carrier.