North Korea said Thursday’s launch was its largest-ever Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which was fired during a drill to demonstrate a “tough response posture” for US-South Korea military exercises, the state said. The media told
Photos released by the country’s state media on Friday showed Kim Jong Un watching the launch with his daughter, and included pictures from space apparently taken by a camera mounted on the missile.
North Korea fired an ICBM into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan on Thursday, hours before South Korea’s president was due to head to Tokyo for a summit discussing ways to counter the nuclear-armed North.
State news agency KCNA said, “The strategic weapon launching drill serves as an opportunity to deliver a strong warning to the adversary of deliberately raising tensions in the Korean Peninsula while continually resorting to irresponsible and reckless military threats.” “
The North’s ballistic missiles are banned under UN Security Council resolutions and the launch drew condemnation from governments in Seoul, Washington and Tokyo.
South Korean and US forces on Monday began an 11-day joint exercise, dubbed “Freedom Shield 23,” on a scale not seen since 2017 to counter the North’s growing threats.
Kim accused the US and South Korea of raising tensions with military drills.
“He stressed the need to instil fear in the enemies, to actually stop the war and guarantee the peaceful life of our people and their struggle for socialist construction,” KCNA reported.
China, which has a defense pact with North Korea, also blames the United States for the current tensions, saying they are due to Washington’s efforts to increase pressure on Pyongyang.
The Hwasong-17 is North Korea’s largest missile yet, and the largest road-mobile, liquid-fuelled ICBM in the world.
It is believed to have the range to potentially deliver a nuclear warhead to a target anywhere in the United States.
The missile was launched from Pyongyang’s airport, and KCNA said it traveled to a maximum altitude of 6,045 km (3,756 mi) and a distance of 1,000 km (621 mi) for just 69 minutes before splashing down in the open sea. Fixed it. The report said that the launch did not pose any threat to the security of any neighboring country.