SEOUL: North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un personally oversaw the test-firing of the country’s “new type” of intercontinental ballistic missile to boost its nuclear deterrent against the US “imperialists”, state media reported on Friday.
The launch was the first time Pyongyang has fired Kim’s most powerful missiles at full range since 2017, and it appears to have travelled higher and further than any previous ICBM tested by the nuclear-armed country. The test launch of the “new type inter-continental ballistic missile” the Hwasong-17 was conducted under the “direct guidance” of leader Kim.
The Hwasong-17 is a giant ICBM first unveiled in October 2020 and dubbed a “monster missile” by analysts. It had never previously been successfully test fired, and the launch prompted immediate outrage from Pyongyang’s neighbours and the United States.
State media carried photographs of Kim, wearing his customary black leather jacket and dark sunglasses, walking across the tarmac in front of a large missile carried on an 11-axle transporter.
“The missile, launched at Pyongyang International Airport, traveled up to a maximum altitude of 6,248.5 km and flew a distance of 1,090 km for 4,052s before accurately hitting the pre-set area in open waters” in the Sea of Japan, state media said.
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South Korea’s military had estimated the range of the launch as 6,200 kilometers – far longer than the last ICBM, the Hwasong-15, North Korea tested in October 2017. The missile landed in Japanese territorial waters, prompting anger from Tokyo, but North Korea said the launch had been carried out “in a vertical launch mode in consideration of the security of neighboring countries”.
Seoul, Washington and UN chief Antonio Guterres have all denounced the launch as a “clear violation” of Security Council resolutions, while Japan said it threatened “peace and safety” in the region.
Kim said the new weapon would “creditably perform its mission and duty as a powerful nuclear war deterrent”. He “remarked with pride that the emergence of the new strategic weapon of the DPRK would make the whole world clearly aware of the power of our strategic armed forces once again.”
Kim said his country now has “formidable military and technical capabilities unperturbed by any military threat and blackmail” and would be “fully ready for long-standing confrontation with the US imperialists.”
