North Korean leader Kim Jong-un supervised the test-fire of a new tactical guided weapon, state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Thursday.



Kim "supervised and guided a test-fire of a new-type tactical guided weapon conducted by the Academy of Defense Science on Wednesday," the KCNA report said.



The design indexes of the weapon, with advantages of "the peculiar mode of guiding flight and the load of a powerful warhead," were "perfectly verified at the test-fire conducted in various modes of firing at different targets," the report said, giving no details of the weapon.



On Thursday when asked about China's comment on North Korea's move, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said that "the process of political settlement of Korean Peninsula issue is now at a critical stage."



"We encourage and support all parties concerned, in particular North Korea and the US, to strengthen dialogue and work together to continue to push forward the momentum of dialogue on the Korean Peninsula to ease tension.



"This serves the common interests of all parties, including North Korea, the US and countries in the region."



It was the North's first weapon test since talks in Vietnam between Kim and US President Donald Trump in late February that ended without reaching an agreement.



Hours later on Thursday, North Korea said it no longer wanted to deal with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and said he should be replaced in talks by someone more mature.



The KCNA news agency quoted senior foreign ministry official Kwon Jong-gun as saying that no one could predict the situation on the Korean Peninsula if the United States did not abandon the "root cause."



KCNA quoted Kwon, who is in charge of US affairs, as saying the Vietnam summit, the second between the two leaders, showed that talks could go wrong "whenever Pompeo pokes his nose in."



"I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled," Kwon said.



"Therefore, even in the case of possible resumption of the dialogue with the United States, I wish our dialogue counterpart would be not Pompeo but other person who is more careful and mature in communicating with us."



US government officials were not immediately available for comment on the call to replace Pompeo.



Moscow said Thursday that Kim will visit Russia in late April for his first meeting with President Vladimir Putin.



"Following an invitation from Vladimir Putin... Kim Jong-un will visit Russia in the second half of April," the Kremlin said in a statement on its website.



