North Korea reports new missile test designed to give the enemy an "incurable headache"

• Kim Jong Un oversaw a new missile test and warned that North Korea's progress would give its enemies an “incurable headache.”

• South Korea says two short-range ballistic missiles were launched from North Korea and travelled up to 600km.

• Analysts believe the test may involve an upgraded missile fitted with hypersonic technology, although North Korea has not identified the weapon.

Kim Jong Un says North Korea's latest weapons test has left its adversaries with what he's calling an "incurable headache."

The North Korean leader personally oversaw the launch on Sunday, later telling state media the test proved a major leap forward in his country's combat readiness.

He didn't elaborate on specifics, saying only that "the enemy will know better what such progress means without any explanation," before adding that the development would deliver "a very cruel and unavoidable blow."

Exactly what was fired remains officially unconfirmed as state media stopped short of naming the weapon. But independent analysts have started filling in the blanks.

NK News, a Seoul-based outlet that tracks North Korean military activity closely, believes the projectile was an upgraded version of the Hwasongpho-11-ma-1, reportedly fitted with a hypersonic glide vehicle, technology that lets a warhead change direction mid-flight to dodge missile defences, and in some cases, be launched partially into orbit.

On the ground, South Korea's military tracked two short-range ballistic missiles launched from the Wonsan area on North Korea's east coast Sunday, fired roughly three hours apart and travelling between 450km and 600km toward the East Sea. Japan's defence ministry confirmed both landed outside its exclusive economic zone.

Photos released alongside the announcement showed Kim at the launch site with his teenage daughter, Kim Ju Ae, believed by many intelligence watchers to be his eventual successor, as the two reviewed the missile's flight path on a monitor.

The test lands at a tense moment. Just days earlier, Pyongyang accused Washington of stoking tensions on the Korean Peninsula through joint military exercises with Seoul and Tokyo near Guam.

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That accusation was still fresh when foreign ministers from South Korea, Japan and the United States sat down together on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday, where they agreed to keep coordinating on peace and denuclearisation efforts in the region.

Hypersonic weapons have become a recurring priority for Kim, who has repeatedly pushed for their development as part of a broader effort to modernise North Korea's nuclear arsenal.