North Korea over the weekend conducted a test of a rocket engine, South Korea’s defense minister said on Tuesday, expressing “deep concern” regarding Pyongyang’s recent steps and calling on the DPRK to stop heightening military tensions.

Speaking during a press conference in Sydney alongside top officials from both South Korea and Australia, minister Jeong Kyeong-doo condemned the DPRK’s “continued launching of ballistic missiles and the engine-testing activity at the North’s Sohae… area.”

This is apparently the first time that a high-level South Korean government authority had confirmed that North Korea’s