North Korea appeared to have launched yet another missile, in what appears to be the country's largest such test in almost four years.

On Sunday (Jan. 30), North Korea completed a test launch of its Hwasong 12 intermediate-range ballistic missile, capping off a busy January for the renegade state. According to North Korean officials, the vehicle was able to take images while in the air.

The country "made public the Earth image data taken from space by a camera installed at the missile warhead," the state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun said Monday (Jan. 31) in a piece that included two photos of our planet taken from a great height by the Hwasong 12.

"It confirmed the accuracy, security and effectiveness of the operation of the Hwasong 12-type weapon system under production," Rodong Sinmun added.

According to the BBC, the Hwasong 12 reached a maximum altitude of around 1,240 miles (2,000 kilometers), flew for about 30 minutes, and covered roughly 500 miles (800 kilometers) of ground. The missile appears to have flown over Japan and landed east of the island nation in the Pacific Ocean.

The launch on Sunday marked North Korea's eighth missile test in January, according to the BBC. On Jan. 5, for example, the United States fired a rocket topped with a hypersonic glider, a highly agile vehicle that is more difficult to detect and intercept than a standard ballistic missile.

All of North Korea's earlier launches this month, including the one on Jan. 5, employed vehicles that were significantly smaller and less powerful than the Hwasong 12. In fact, North Korea's launch on Sunday was reportedly the largest since November 2017, when the country launched an intercontinental ballistic missile that reached a maximum altitude of nearly 2,800 miles (4,500 km).

North Korea is undertaking these tests in defiance of UN Security Council sanctions aimed at keeping the isolated, nuclear-armed country and its despotic dictator, Kim Jong Un, under control.

Kim has routinely broken these sanctions over the years, but this month's barrage stands out.

"Experts suggest multiple reasons lie behind the spate of launches, including political signaling of strength to global and regional powers, a desire by Kim Jong Un to pressure the U.S. back into long-stalled nuclear talks and also the practical need to test out new engineering and military command systems," the BBC wrote. "The timing is also seen as significant, coming just before the Winter Olympics in China, and ahead of the South Korean presidential election in March."