North Korea's official news agency described the weapon as a "super-large multiple rocket launcher". It also quoted Kim as saying the country needed to keep stepping up weapons development "for resolutely frustrating the ever-mounting military threats". In France, where Trump is attending a meeting of G7 leaders, the US leader played down the importance of the launch.
"I'm not happy about it, but then again he's not in violation of the agreement," Trump said, referring to a deal between the two leaders that ostensibly prohibited the firing of long-range ballistic missiles. "I discussed long-range ballistic and that he cannot do and he hasn't been doing it... He has done short-range, much more standard missiles, a lot of people are testing those missiles, not just him. We are in the world of missiles folks, whether you like it or not," the US president added.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took the opposite view, saying North Korea's latest missile test was a clear violation of UN rules which was "extremely regrettable". Trump has staked enormous political capital on personal diplomacy with Kim in a so-far unsuccessful effort to persuade the North Korean dictator to give up his nuclear weapons arsenal.
The latest missile tests could further thwart the resumption of the negotiations. Photos carried by North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper Sunday showed a broadly grinning Kim standing in front of an eight-wheeled launcher, and others showing rockets being launched from the vehicle. Saturday's launch appeared to be "the fourth new missile system that North Korea has debuted since the Hanoi holdup", tweeted Vipin Narang, an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"This is Kim's own maximum-pressure campaign," he added. Negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington have been gridlocked since a second summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in Hanoi in February collapsed without an agreement over the extent of denuclearisation in the North and sanctions relief.