Ri said USA sanctions will not deter the country.
Advertisement
North Korea has fired off another ballistic missile, using a submarine for the launch from its east coast.
While South Korean experts say it’s unlikely that North Korea now possesses a submarine large enough to carry and fire multiple missiles, they acknowledge that the North is making progress on a unsafe weapons technology.
On May 9 of 2015, the KCNA reported that Kim Jong Un watched the test-fire of a newly developed submarine-launched ballistic missile and called it “a success as signal as satellite launch”.
In the meantime, in a rare interview with a western news agency by a leading North Korean official, Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong offered to halt nuclear tests if the United States suspends military exercises with South Korea.
As seen in the photo above, a North Korean missile was launched from a submarine in a series of failed attempts to test ballistic missiles from the northeast coast of Pyongyang.
North Korea will hold a congress of its ruling Workers’ Party in early May for the first time in 36 years, at which leader Kim is expected to formally declare the country is a strong military power and a nuclear state.
“Stop the nuclear war exercises in the Korean Peninsula, then we should also cease our nuclear tests”, Ri told the Associated Press in an interview in NY, where he participated in signing the Paris agreement on climate change at the United Nations.
An unnamed United States official quoted by AP defended the drills in South Korea as demonstrating Washington’s commitment to its alliance with Seoul.
On January 6, North Korea said it had successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb, its fourth nuclear test, vowing to build up its nuclear program as deterrence against potential aggression from the U.S. and its regional allies. “Then we will respond likewise”.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the missile flew “for a few minutes”, citing a government source.
North Korea has been seen in recent years as developing technologies for launching ballistic missiles from underwater. “We call on North Korea to refrain from actions that further destabilize the region and focus instead on taking concrete steps toward fulfilling its commitments and global obligations”.
“A country as small as the DPRK can not actually be a threat to the U.S. or to the world”, Ri added.
Advertisement
South Korea’s military did not specify what sort of missile was part of the April 14 test, but South Korean media reports said it involved an intermediate-range Musudan missile.
