North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has supervised the testing of "a newly developed ultramodern tactical weapon," the North's state media reported Friday.

It marked the first report out of North Korea in about a year of Kim's supervising a weapons test since an intercontinental ballistic missile test launch in late November last year.

[KCNA/Kyodo]

The testing at the Academy of Defense Science test ground was successful, the Korean Central News Agency said, without specifying what type of weapon it was or when the test was carried out.

The development comes as U.S.-North Korean denuclearization talks have stalled, with the administration of the President Donald Trump determined to pursue North Korea's denuclearization while keeping strict sanctions in place.

Quoting Kim, the KCNA said the development of the weapon had been personally decided and directed by Kim's father and late leader Kim Jong Il, and that it means increasing the nation's defense capability and weapons system.

The weapon marks "a decisive turn in bolstering the fighting capacity of the Korean People's Army," Kim Jong Un also said, according to the KCNA.

Kim was accompanied by Choe Ryong Hae, the nation's de facto No. 2 figure who is regarded as leader Kim's right-hand man, and Ri Pyong Chol, first vice director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Workers' Party of Korea, who has directed North Korea's missile development.

On Nov. 29, 2017, Kim oversaw the test launch of what North Korea said was the "most powerful" ICBM that is capable of hitting anywhere in the United States with a nuclear warhead.

"Now we have finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force and the cause of building a rocket power," Kim was quoted as saying in a government statement at the time.

North Korea has since suspended ballistic missile tests. At a plenary meeting of the ruling party's Central Committee in April, North Korea decided to suspend nuclear and missile tests, suggesting that it was now focused on bolstering its economy.

Reports of Kim's field surveys from North Korean media had since been limited to economic ones.