Launched ICBM to give “stronger warning” to US, SKorea over drills: North Korea

North Korea said in a press release that the launch of the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Hwasongpho-17 on Thursday was a “stronger warning” to the US and South Korea for their provocative and belligerent large-scale war games.

In the state news agency, KCNA, North Korea said, “Under the grave situation in which the most unstable security environment is being created in the Korean peninsula due to the frantic, provocative and aggressive large-scale war drills conducted by the US and the south Korean puppet traitors against the DPRK, the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) saw to it that a launching drill of the ICBM Hwasongpho-17 was conducted on March 16.” 

North Korea launched a long-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Thursday, prompting this declaration.

“The launching drill of the strategic weapon serves as an occasion to give a stronger warning to the enemies intentionally escalating the tension in the Korean peninsula while persistently resorting to irresponsible and reckless military threats in defiance of the DPRK’s severe warning, and give an understanding of the concern about the armed conflict which has come to a threatening reality, and to more clearly show the practical will of the Party and government of the DPRK to counterattack with overwhelming offensive measures anytime,” the statement added.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un directed the live launch of an ICBM unit. Senior members of the WPK Central Committee and commanding officers of the Missile General Bureau observed the launch drill in the presence of Comrade Kim Jong Un. The drill was designed to validate the DPRK’s nuclear deterrent’s mobility and routine operation, as well as its reliability.

“The ICBM Hwasongpho-17, launched at the Pyongyang International Airport, travelled up to a maximum altitude of 6 045km and flew a distance of 1 000.2 km for 4 151s before accurately landing on the preset area in the open waters of the East Sea of Korea,” according to the statement.

North Korea also stated that the drill had no detrimental impact on the security of neighbouring countries. The simulation demonstrated the ICBM unit’s war readiness as well as the DPRK’s strategic forces’ unparalleled militancy and reliability.

Kim Jong Un expressed great satisfaction in the statement, saying that the drill demonstrated once again the conviction and guarantee of the nuclear strategic forces’ operating systems, which are undergoing rapid growth.

“Noting that our action orientation and line to cope with the long-term security environment of the state and the enemies’ threat remains unchangeable, he stressed the need to strike fear into the enemies, really deter war and reliably guarantee the peaceful life of our people and their struggle for socialist construction by irreversibly bolstering up the nuclear war deterrent,” the statement read in KCNA.

“Saying that we will continue to make the US and South Korea, which show open hostility towards the DPRK and frequently stage large-scale military drills in and around the Korean peninsula, find themselves being reckless, he mentioned our policy for counteraction against the enemies that is to make them realize themselves that their persistent expanded anti-DPRK military moves will bring an irreversible, grave threat to them,” the statement added.

Reiterating the WPK and DPRK government’s solemn statement that they would respond to nuclear weapons with nukes and frontal confrontation in kind, Kim Jong Un asked for the strategic forces to rigorously maintain a quick reaction posture to deal with any armed conflict and war. The DPRK’s nuclear strategic forces will be fully prepared to carry out their critical role at any time.