North Korea launched a missile toward waters off its eastern coast on Saturday, with the weapon striking a designated target about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) away in the East Sea (Sea of Japan), according to the country’s state media Sunday.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that the intermediate-range strategic missile, under was launched northeastward from an eastern region of the country at dawn Saturday. 

“The drill was conducted as part of the efforts to train the missile soldiers operating the hypersonic strategic weapon system in handling their equipment and evaluate the reliability, efficiency and mobility of the