TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The ballistic missile launched by North Korea on Monday was a new type of intermediate-range hypersonic missile and it successfully flew 1,500 kilometers to a simulated target at sea, the country's official media reported.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was quoted by the Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday as saying the test-firing of the new missile was "mainly aimed to steadily put the country's nuclear war deterrent on an advanced basis."

The Japanese Defense Ministry and the South Korean military have said the missile was launched from an inland area of North Korea toward the Sea of Japan.

The missile test, Pyongyang's first in about two months, came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting Seoul for talks with his counterpart over the North Korean missile and nuclear threat.

The missile, launched from a suburb of Pyongyang, reached a maximum altitude of around 100 kilometers and flew at twelve times the speed of sound, KCNA reported.

The news agency said the previous day that Kim had pledged to adopt "the toughest anti-U.S. counteraction" strategy at a meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea late last month.