North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country will soon conduct a nuclear warhead test and a test launch of ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, the North's official KCNA news agency reported Tuesday.
Such tests will be in defiant violation of United Nations sanctions that were recently strengthened with the backing of China, North Korea's chief ally.
Kim made the comments as he supervised a successful simulated test of atmospheric re-entry of a ballistic missile that measured the "thermodynamic structural stability of newly developed heat-resisting materials," KCNA said. The state Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed photos of a frame-mounted jet engine blasting a metal cone, which Kim was then seen examining.