<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>North Korea could test-fire intercontinental ballistic missiles on a lower, longer trajectory and conduct its seventh nuclear test this year to perfect its weapons capabilities, South Korean lawmakers said on Wednesday, citing intelligence officials.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>North Korea has so far conducted ICBM tests only on lofted trajectories, but has already secured capabilities to launch them at a normal angle, enabling them to fly much further, the lawmakers said after a briefing by Seoul's National Intelligence Service (NIS).</div><div><br></div><div>The lawmakers said Pyongyang might undertake an ICBM test on a normal trajectory to pressure the United States, which has conducted military drills in the region recently and plans more large exercises in the coming months.</div><div><br></div><div>The briefing came as the US, South Korean and Japanese navies staged joint tactical drills on Wednesday in waters between the Asian neighbours.</div><div><br></div><div>A Japanese escort vessel and US and South Korean destroyers joined the training aimed at stepping up trilateral ballistic missile responses, Tokyo's defence ministry said.</div><div><br></div><div>North Korea fired an ICBM on Saturday and two more short-range ballistic missiles on Monday, with the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un threatening to use the Pacific as a "firing range" depending on US behaviour.</div><div><br></div><div>"ICBMs have not been launched at a normal angle so far, but North Korea has all the capabilities and seems to be preparing a timeline to boost the pressure effect on the United States," Yoo Sang-bum, a member of the parliamentary intelligence committee, told reporters after the briefing.</div><div><br></div><div>North Korea is also likely to carry out what would be its first nuclear test since 2017 and launch a spy satellite this year but it has yet to master the technology to equip multiple rocket launchers with atomic devices, Yoo said.</div><div><br></div><div>"There is a possibility for a seventh test which would be essential to complete the miniaturization and lightening of weight of nuclear bombs," he said.</div><div><br></div><div>Youn Kun-young, another member of the committee, said North Korea might also develop solid fuel-based ICBMs this year, and confirmed the defence ministry's report that Chinese spy balloons did not enter South Korean airspace.</div><div><br></div><div>Also on Wednesday, North Korea's foreign ministry said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been "extremely unfair, unbalanced" on its missile tests.</div><div><br></div><div>Guterres condemned the North's latest ICBM launch, urging it to immediately halt further provocative actions, comply with Security Council resolutions banning such tests and return to denuclearization talks.</div><div><br></div><div>He "should clearly understand that his unreasonable and prejudiced stand on the Korean peninsula issue is acting as a factor inciting the hostile acts of the US and its followers," Kim Son Gyong, Pyongyang's vice foreign minister for international organizations, said in a statement carried by state media KCNA, reports Reuters&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>"In case a situation unwished by anyone arises on the Korean peninsula ... (Guterres) can never be free from the heavy responsibility for it."</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>