North Korea’s recent hypersonic missile test has further encouraged leader Kim Jong Un to double down on building the country’s military forces, state media said on Wednesday. Kim Jong Un– who has been in power for more than a decade now– attended a missile launch after two years.

The North Korean leader instructed state military scientists to “further accelerate the efforts to steadily build up the country’s strategic military muscle both in quality and quantity and further modernize the army”, according to reports from news agency KCNA.

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However, the hypersonic missile test– which was the second in one week– was not taken the same way across the globe. The test was condemned by multiple international organisations and authorities across the world. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the matter was concerning.

At a time when talks with United States and South Korea have come to a halt, North Korea has previously cleared that it would be open to kickstarting diplomacy, conditionally. North Korea demands terminating “hostile policies”, according to reports from Reuters.

Several sanctions have been placed over the East Asian country by the United Nations Security Council. Testing of nuclear arms and ballistic weaponry has also been blocked.

Hypersonic weapons, which fly at speeds in excess of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, could pose a crucial challenge to missile defense systems because of their speed and maneuverability, according to reports from Associated Press.

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Such weapons were on a wish-list of sophisticated military assets Kim unveiled early last year along with multi-warhead missiles, spy satellites, solid-fuel long-range missiles and submarine-launched nuclear missiles.

Experts say North Korea needs more successful and longer-range tests that would take years before acquiring a credible hypersonic system.