In a statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Portugal’s government “firmly condemns the launch of another ballistic missile with intercontinental range by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” in the early hours of Wednesday, local time.

According to the ministry, the missile launch was a “fresh demonstration of the manifest disdain for the obligations defined in various resolutions of the Security Council of the United Nations, which the North Korean regime insists on violating, putting at risk in irresponsible fashion regional and international security.”

The statement “calls on the international community to exercise the maximum pressure” on the government in Pyongyang “so that it resumes a serious and substantive dialogue, with a view to the complete abandonment, verifiable and irreversible, of its ballistic and nuclear programmes, that challenge international non-proliferation and disarmament agreements, putting at risk world peace and stability.”

Portugal reiterates its “commitment to the rigorous implementation of sanctions unanimously imposed by the Security Council of the United Nations, as well as the European Union’s separate restrictive measures.”

North Korea state television on Wednesday announced the “successful” launch – the first in two and a half months – which it said had been authorised and personally witnessed by the country’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-un.

The missile in question is a new model, dubbed Hwasong-15, that has a larger range than any previous North Korean projectile – so marking a dangerous advance in the country’s arms programme.

Some specialists believe that the missile would have the capacity to fly more than 13,000 kilometres – enough to reach Washington or other parts of the US mainland.