North Korea says latest missile launch demonstrates its ‘powerful physical nuclear deterrent’ | World News
The United States responded by flying in long-range supersonic bombers later Sunday in a show of force for separate joint exercises with South Korean and Japanese warplanes.
From Adam Solomons, news reporter
Sunday, February 19, 2023 5:14 PM, UK
North Korea has said its recent ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) test demonstrated its “strong physical nuclear deterrent” and efforts to “direct its lethal nuclear counterattack capability on enemy forces.”
The Hwasong-15 missile Fire launched from Pyongyang International Airport on Saturday plunged into the Sea of Japan around 125 miles (201 km) west of the northwestern island of Oshima, according to Tokyo Deputy Defense Minister Toshiro Ino.
North Korea said the launch was in response to South Korea and the US military exercises planned for next month.
The launch of Hwasong-15 demonstrates the North’s “powerful physical nuclear deterrent” and its efforts to “convert its capability of deadly nuclear counterattack on enemy forces into an extremely powerful one that cannot be countered,” said KCNA, North Korea’s state news agency .
Leader Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong also said on Sunday: “I warn that we will monitor the enemy’s every move and take appropriate and very powerful and overwhelming countermeasures against any of their hostile moves.”
The US responded to the test by flying in long-range supersonic bombers.
US B-1B bombers and other aircraft trained separately with South Korean and Japanese fighters over and near the Korean Peninsula.
A statement from the South Korean military said Sunday’s training reaffirmed Washington’s “iron-clad” security commitment to South Korea.
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Kim Jong Un takes his little daughter to the soccer game
UN Security Council resolutions have banned North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons program.
But North Korea claims its weapons are needed to counter “hostile policies” by the US and its allies.
North Korea had announced an “unprecedented” crackdown on “arch-criminal” states after South Korea announced a series of military exercises with the US in the coming months.
Kim Jong Un took part in a wide-scale military parade on the streets of Pyongyang last week as troops deployed more than a dozen ICBMs.