In a rare publicity move, the Chinese military published early on Thursday morning pictures of its intercontinental ballistic missile launch operation that took place on Wednesday.

The People's Liberation Army Rocket Force publicized four pictures showing the missile's firing moment, showing a big, green-painted missile soaring up into skies after lifting off from a launch vehicle among what appeared to be tropical shrubs.

This has been an unusual move for the PLA because it had hardly published photos of its intercontinental ballistic missiles, let alone images of the missile's launch moment.

READ MORE: PLA launches intercontinental ballistic missile into Pacific Ocean

The military announced on Wednesday that the PLA Rocket Force launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, carrying dummy warheads, into open waters in the Pacific Ocean.

It did not specify the missile's type and the location where the missile was launched.

The missile test was part of the PLA Rocket Force's annual training plan and was intended to examine the weapon's capability and performance as well as the training level of the troops. The test had achieved its goals, according to a news release from the military.

This has been the first time in more than four decades that China made public its flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

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The last time the nation made such a flight test public was in May 1980, when the baseline model of the DF-5 was fired from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwestern China and hit a preset area in the South Pacific after flying more than 9,000 kilometers. That was the first time a DF-5 missile carried out a full-range flight test.