North Korean leader Kim Jong-un hailed the latest test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile as the “success of all successes,” state media said Thursday, as the UN gears up to condemn the event that would likely beef up the country’s nuclear capabilities.

The young ruler observed Wednesday’s liftoff during which the projectile flew about 500 kilometers before falling into Japan’s air defense zone, marking the weapon’s longest flight and signaling sweeping technological advances.

The experiment proved the country has joined the “front rank of the military powers fully equipped with nuclear attack capability,” Kim was quoted as saying by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Any “rash acts” by the US and its allies will “only precipitate their self-destruction,” he added. 

The Rodong Sinmun, the ruling Workers’ Party’s mouthpiece, carried 24 photos of Kim at the scene. The Korean Central Television also aired a 107-second footage of the launch, featuring the missile soaring into the air from the water, with a thundering noise, from various angles, as well as some other 60 related images.

The SLBM was fired at a high trajectory powered by a solid fuel engine, the KCNA said, claiming that the test demonstrated its “perfect” mastering of core technologies.

The event prompted the UN Security Council to convene an emergency meeting late Wednesday in New York, during which its members explored issuing a statement condemning the provocation.

With Washington currently working on a draft, one focal point is whether China will back it as it has thwarted similar attempts following the North’s recent tests by linking them to plans to install advanced US missile defense assets in South Korea.

“There was a general sense of condemnation by most members of the council,” Ramlan Bin Ibrahim, Malaysia’s ambassador to the UN and the current council president, told reporters after the closed session.

Seoul offered a positive outlook for the ongoing efforts at the UN, citing Beijing’s expression of opposition to the test during the foreign ministers’ meeting in Tokyo.

“Our government is refraining from predicting what kind of outcome the UNSC discussions will lead to at this point. But we will continue necessary diplomatic efforts in close cooperation with our friends,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Cho June-hyuck said at a news briefing on Thursday.

“We’ve been emphasizing that the planned deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system is our self-defensive measure to counter North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, not directed at any other third nation,” he added, referring to China’s resistance.

In Washington, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest also stressed the need to “present a united front to North Korea and deepen its isolation” as critical to changing its behavior, while leaving the possibility open for additional sanctions.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon censured the test-fire as “deeply troubling” and in defiance of the “united call of the international community to reverse its course” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)