North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has overseen the testing of a new tactical guided weapon, state media says, the North's first public weapons test since a second summit with the US ended without agreement in February.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) did not describe exactly what weapon was tested on Wednesday, including whether it was a missile or another type of weapon.
"Tactical" implies a short-range weapon rather than the long-range ballistic missiles that have been seen as a threat to the United States.
The weapon has a "peculiar mode of guiding flight" and "a powerful warhead", KCNA said.
Kim said "the completion of the development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power" of the North Korean army, according to KCNA.
A second summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in Hanoi in February failed to make any progress towards denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. Sanctions against the North over its nuclear and missiles programs remain in place.
Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at Kyungnam University's Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, said the description that the test was "conducted in various modes of firing at different targets" likely meant that it could be launched from the ground, sea and air.
"It's highly likely that it's a short-range cruise missile that can be transformed into a surface, an air-to-surface, an air-to-ship, a ship-to-ship, as well as a surface-to-surface cruise missile," Kim Dong-yub said.
Kim Jong-un also oversaw the test of an unidentified tactical weapon in November that could protect North Korea like a "steel wall", according to state media. It was not clear whether it was the same weapon tested this week.
A US official said that, according to initial information, US Northern Command and Strategic Command did not detect a missile launch from North Korea.
Further checks were underway, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A White House official said: "We are aware of the report and have no further comment."
Satellite images from last week showed movement at Yongbyon, North Korea's main nuclear site, that could be associated with the reprocessing of radioactive material into bomb fuel, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in the US said on Tuesday.
