(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with more info) 
 
 SEOUL, July 11 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has yet to fully secure the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) as it remains unknown whether the country's recently fired ballistic missile successfully re-entered the atmosphere, lawmakers said Tuesday quoting the spy agency. 
 
 On July 4, North Korea fired a ballistic missile called Hwasong-14 which reached an altitude of 2,802 kilometers and flew 933 km for 39 minutes. The North touted it as the country's first successful ICBM launch. 
 
 But South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) concluded that the latest missile still lacked re-entry technology although it flew as far as an ICBM does, Rep. Yi Wan-young of the Liberty Korea Party and Rep. Kim Byung-kee of the ruling Democratic Party said following the spy agency's parliamentary report on the July 4 launch. 
 
 "Although North Korea claimed that (the missile's) heat resistance was verified, whether it re-entered (the atmosphere safely) was not confirmed and the country has no relevant test facility, making it look like it has not secured the technology," the NIS was quoted as reporting to the parliamentary intelligence committee. 
 
 North Korea may have not attained the technology to guide a warhead precisely to a target either -- another key ICBM technology -- given that the re-entry technique normally needs to be secured before that, according to the lawmakers. 
 
 The July 4 launch appears to be in protest of a summit meeting between South Korea and the United States several days earlier as well as an attempt to thwart the international community's sanctions against the country, the NIS also told the lawmakers. 
 
 In the two weeks leading to the launch, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had not made any public appearances, intensely focusing on the missile progress before he attended the test, the spy agency said. 
 
 Quoting the NIS, the lawmakers also said North Korea is capable of conducting a nuclear test at its Punggye-ri site at any time, but there are no signs of an immediate detonation for the moment. 
 
 Forecasting the U.S. reaction to the recent missile launch, the NIS was quoted as saying that the country may consider more unilateral sanctions on North Korea, while Russia and China may increase calls to open dialogue with the North. 
 
 The NIS also said North Korea recently appointed Ho Yong-bok, the foreign ministry's director-general for the Africa, Arab and Latin America regions, as a new vice foreign minister in a cabinet reshuffle. 
 
 In the first half of 2017, North Korea carried out 33 foreign affairs activities with 17 foreign countries, the worst performance since Kim came to power, which the agency attributed to North Korea's falling global reputation in the aftermath of its continued missile provocations. 
 
 Rep. Kim Byung-kee of the ruling Democratic Party and Yi Wan-young of the Liberty Korea Party brief reporters after a meeting of the parliamentary intelligence committee on July 11, 2017. (Yonhap) 
 
 pbr@yna.co.kr 
 
 (END) ||||| (CNN) Despite its long range, the North Korean missile fired on July 4 is not capable of a key process that would allow a nuclear weapon atop the projectile to hit its target, South Korea's intelligence service told lawmakers Tuesday. 
 
 After the test launch last week, North Korean state media said the ballistic missile was equipped with a stable re-entry system, which allows a warhead to survive the heat-intensive process of re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. 
 
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 Ballistic missiles follow an arched trajectory, whereas cruise missiles mostly travel parallel to the ground. 
 
 "Considering the fact that the missile had been launched from a fixed launcher, the NIS (National Intelligence Service) evaluates the technology is at the beginning stage," South Korean lawmaker Lee Wan-young said Tuesday. 
 
 "The NIS sees North Korea as not yet capable of re-entry technology," Lee said in a televised news conference after an intelligence briefing. 
 
 North Korea said last week it tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile, capable of reaching Alaska. 
 
 The news set off alarm bells as the United States celebrated its Independence Day holiday and as world leaders prepared to gather for the G20 summit in Germany. 
 
 Authorities in the United States and South Korea verified the missile had intercontinental range but provided few other details. 
 
 'A matter of enough trial and error' 
 
 Acquiring a nuclear-capable ballistic missile that can hit the United States is a top priority for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. 
 
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 Pyongyang looks at leaders such as Libya's Moammar Gadhafi , who gave up his nuclear program for sanctions relief but was eventually ousted and killed, and believes the ability to attack the United States with a nuclear weapon is the only way they can deter any American-backed attempt at regime change, analysts suggest. 
 
 Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, told lawmakers in May that the biggest hurdle left in North Korea's missile program is perfecting re-entry. 
 
 "It's really a matter of enough trial and error to make that work," Stewart said. "They understand the physics, so it's just a matter of design." 
 
 At the current rate of progress, North Korea would ultimately succeed in fielding a nuclear-armed missile capable of threatening the United States, Stewart said. 
 
 US commanders are already operating under the assumption that Kim has the ability to miniaturize a nuclear warhead to place it on a missile. 
 
 Analyzing success 
 
 North Koreans likely judge the progress of their re-entry vehicle using sensors to gauge if the temperature's within a suitable range, said Tong Zhao, a Beijing-based fellow at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy 's Nuclear Policy Program. 
 
 But last week's test involved a whole host of scenarios that could have altered its performance, including launching the missile at lofted trajectory to ensure it didn't travel too far. 
 
 Other countries have gone back and retrieved their re-entry vehicles after launch to examine them, but North Korea doesn't have the logistical capability to do so, Zhao said. 
 
 "I think the South Koreans were saying, look, this is not the most reliable way to prove the technology. You can only guess to some extent, you can never know for sure if everything will work." 
 
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 Zhao said he believes the only way to know Pyongyang's operational capability is if the country actually fielded a nuclear warhead atop a missile. 
 
 He and other North Korean watchers are concerned that if the world keeps insisting North Korea does not have an ICBM and has not perfected its re-entry technology, Pyongyang could launch a missile with a nuclear warhead just to prove the efficacy of its weapons. 
 
 "This will encourage the North Koreans to really want to demonstrate to the international community that they can; therefore, they might actually one day detonate a warhead on top of a missile test," he said. "There is a risk if we keep saying the North Koreans can't achieve the capability." 
 
 US envoy's trip to Singapore and Myanmar 
 
 The announcement from South Korean authorities comes as US ambassador Joseph Yun, the special representative for North Korea policy, is on his first day of a weeklong visit to Singapore and Myanmar. 
 
 Both of those countries have been previously tied to North Korea's illicit finance activities, which help fund Pyongyang's weapons programs, among other things. ||||| North Korea reached a milestone as it test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching Alaska. What could happen next, as tensions escalate? Here are some of the possible scenarios. Photo: Getty Images 
 
 WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is moving toward unilaterally tightening sanctions on North Korea, targeting Chinese companies and banks the U.S. says are funneling cash into Pyongyang’s weapons program. 
 
 Sharper rhetoric from high-ranking U.S. officials since North Korea’s July 4 ballistic missile test and recently unsealed court filings offer clues that the White House is ready to use its own powers to constrict the flow of cash to Kim Jong Un’s regime. U.S. officials have expressed a preference for collective action...
– China appears to be tired of the US and other nations blaming Beijing for not reining in North Korea. "The 'China responsibility theory' on the peninsula nuclear issue can stop," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, per Reuters. He didn't name names, but he said that "certain people, talking about the Korean peninsula nuclear issue, have been exaggerating and giving prominence" to China's role. (President Trump has been among them.) Geng said other nations must step up, too, and the Wall Street Journal reports that the US is preparing to do just that, but in a way that surely won't please Beijing. The report says the Justice Department is readying its own sanctions against North Korea, with the target being Chinese businesses and banks thought to be bankrolling the regime. Specifically, the feds may go after a network run by a Chinese national named Chi Yupeng, who is one of the biggest importers of North Korean products into China. The Justice Department, citing information from North Korean defectors, says Chi's network funnels money to the North's military. All this is playing out in the wake of Pyongyang's July 4 launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile—North Korea celebrated the feat as only North Korea can—but South Korea's Yonhap News Agency is now raising a key doubt about that launch. The South's spy agency does not believe that the North has figured out how to keep an ICBM stable as it re-enters the atmosphere after launch. Without such a system, the North wouldn't be able to mount a warhead, nuclear or otherwise, and expect it to survive the re-entry process, explains CNN.