Pyongyang says its latest ballistic missile test simulates the launching of preemptive nuke strikes against U.S. bases in South Korea, and was personally monitored by North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “provided field guidance to the drill”, observing that the ballistic missiles launched in Hwangju, North Hwanghae Province, flew across the country and hit the East Sea, the KCNA said.
These shots were immediately condemned by the U.S. and Japan, which announced a coordinated response to repeated violations by Pyongyang of United Nations resolutions prohibiting the country of any nuclear and missile program.
It didn’t appear to deter North Korea however – in June, the country fired two Musudan intermediate-range missiles from their eastern coast, one of which they announced had been a successful test. On July 9, North Korea fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) also against the decision to by the U.S. to station its missile defense system at its borders.
Undated, this photo shows a test launch of the ballistic missile Hwasong-10 at an undisclosed location in North Korea.
North Korea’s state radio has recently broadcast strings of indecipherable numbers in a possible move echoing a Cold War-era method of sending coded messages to spies operating in South Korea.
North Korea is testing nuclear detonators for strikes against the South – in yet another defiant gesture from despot Kim Jong un.
North Korean state-run media on Wednesday revealed their Tuesday ballistic launches were practicing pre-emptive strikes on ports and airfields in South Korea, with a strategic map showing their range covering the whole South.
Analysts have so far ruled out that the North has acquired the capability to miniaturise nuclear warheads and mount them on ballistic missiles. Following those developments, the UN Security Council issued tough new sanctions on North Korea. About 28,500 US soldiers are stationed in South Korea to deter possible aggression from North Korea; tens of thousands more are stationed in Japan.
The decision has also been controversial in South Korea, particularly in the rural area of Seongju, about 130 miles southeast of Seoul, which has been chosen as the site for the battery.
Madeleine Bordallo, the delegate from Guam to the U.S. House of Representatives, said that the people of Guam have welcomed the THAAD deployment and have not complained at all over having the system there.
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The UN also condemned the latest launch calling the firing of missiles “deeply troubling”.
