SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea performed its first ballistic missile test in five months Wednesday, South Korea’s military said, days before President Donald Trump and other world leaders are to gather in rival South for a regional conference.

North Korea said Thursday that its latest missile tests involved a new hypersonic system aimed at strengthening its nuclear war deterrent, as leader Kim Jong Un continues to build up weapons designed

North Korea has turned deception into strategy, weaponizing ambiguity to mask nuclear progress. Its success reveals how bureaucratic inertia within US intelligence creates blind spots.

North Korea is in the final stages of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking the U.S., the president of South Korea has said.