North Korea says it has made further progress in expanding its nuclear capabilities to deter the United States. A “new type” intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was fired during a weapons test yesterday, the state media of the largely isolated country reported. The test, supervised by ruler Kim Jong Un, was successful. The armed forces now have another means at hand to “deter any nuclear threat,” Kim was quoted as saying.
Kim again accused the United States of being on a confrontational course and threatening his country with nuclear weapons – an accusation that Washington denies. Kim threatened to respond “to nuclear weapons with nuclear weapons and to total confrontation with all-out confrontation.” Any military counter-action by the US and its allies, including South Korea, will lead to their self-destruction.
South Korea said North Korea on Friday fired a missile for the second time this month that could theoretically reach US territory. North Korea identified the missile as “Hwasongpho-17” and boasted that it now had “the world’s most powerful strategic weapon”. After a flight at an altitude of up to 6040.9 kilometers and a distance of almost 1000 kilometers, she fell into the water in a targeted area in the Sea of Japan (Korean: East Sea).
The United States and its allies South Korea and Japan accused North Korea of serious provocation. A UN resolution bans Pyongyang from testing ICBMs and other ballistic missiles that, depending on the design, can be equipped with a nuclear warhead. Despite international criticism, North Korea has carried out missile tests at an unusually high frequency since the end of September.
