North Korea released photos of its new Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile, which it fired toward the East Sea on Wednesday. / Yonhap

North Korea released photos of its new Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile, which it fired toward the East Sea on Wednesday. / Yonhap

North Korea released photos of its new long-range ballistic missile Thursday, which features a different shape from the previous version.

The front part of the Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is round shaped and relatively blunt, while that of the Hwasong-14 ICBM is sharp, according to a photograph published by the Rodong Sinmun, a newspaper of the Workers' Party of Korea, and monitored online here.

It was shown on a transporter erector launcher (TEL) with nine wheels on each side, indicating the new one is longer than the Hwasong-14 that's carried by a 16-wheel TEL.

The newspaper also made public more than a dozen other photos of the new ICBM launch early Wednesday morning, including those of leader Kim Jong-un giving a "field guidance" at the launch site north of Pyongyang.

He pumped his fist, monitoring flight data on a screen and celebrating the successful launch, along with his aides. The missile reportedly flew 950 kilometers at an apogee of 4,475 km to splash into the East Sea.

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The newspaper used four front pages to hype up the communist nation's first ballistic missile firing in 2 1/2 months.

The official Korean Central News Agency also made public the same photos.

Pyongyang fired two Hwasong-14 ICBMs in July. (Yonhap)