Photo/Illutration A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea's missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul on Feb. 20. (AP Photo)

SEOUL--North Korea could test-fire intercontinental ballistic missiles on a lower, longer trajectory and conduct its seventh nuclear test this year to perfect its weapons capabilities, South Korean lawmakers said on Wednesday, citing intelligence officials.

North Korea has so far conducted ICBM tests only on lofted trajectories but has already secured capabilities to launch them at a normal angle, enabling them to fly much further, the lawmakers said after a briefing by Seoul’s National Intelligence Service (NIS).

The lawmakers said Pyongyang might undertake an ICBM test on a normal trajectory to pressure the United States, which has conducted military drills in the region recently and plans more large exercises in the coming months.

North Korea fired an ICBM on Saturday and two more short-range ballistic missiles on Monday, with the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un threatening to use the Pacific as a “firing range” depending on U.S. behavior.

“ICBMs have not been launched at a normal angle so far, but North Korea has all the capabilities and seems to be preparing a timeline to boost the pressure effect on the United States,” Yoo Sang-bum, a member of the parliamentary intelligence committee, told reporters after the briefing.

North Korea is also likely to carry out what would be its first nuclear test since 2017 and launch a spy satellite this year but it has yet to master the technology to equip multiple rocket launchers with atomic devices, Yoo said.

“There is a possibility for a seventh test which would be essential to complete the miniaturization and lightening of weight of nuclear bombs,” he said.

Youn Kun-young, another member of the committee, said North Korea might also develop solid fuel-based ICBMs this year, and confirmed the defense ministry’s report that Chinese spy balloons did not enter South Korean airspace.

Also on Wednesday, North Korea’s foreign ministry said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been “extremely unfair, unbalanced” on its missile tests.

Guterres condemned the North’s latest ICBM launch, urging it to immediately halt further provocative actions, comply with Security Council resolutions banning such tests and return to denuclearization talks.

“He must clearly know that his irrational and prejudiced stance on the Korean peninsula issue serves as a factor that instigates the U.S. and its followers’ hostile acts against us,” Kim Son Gyong, vice minister for international organizations at Pyongyang’s foreign ministry, said in a statement carried by state media KCNA. “If an undesirable situation arises on the Korean peninsula ... the UN secretary-general himself would not be free from heavy responsibilities for it.”

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