North Korea marked its “Military First” holiday on Thursday with mass dancing, outdoor concerts and boasts of a successful submarine-launched ballistic missile test.
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Thursday that his country had achieved the “success of all successes” in launching a missile from a submarine, saying it effectively gave the country a fully equipped nuclear attack capability and put the USA mainland within striking distance.
Kim said the test-firing has proved the DPRK “joined the front rack of the military powers fully equipped with nuclear attack capability” and that the USA mainland and military bases in the Asia Pacific are now within the striking range of the DPRK’s military.
North Korea claimed the exercises, which kicked off Monday, were a rehearsal for invading the reclusive state, which was hit by strengthened United Nations punitive measures following its fourth ever nuclear test earlier this year.
After North Korea’s previous missile test, the US also proposed a press statement, but diplomats said China insisted on language linking it to USA plans to place a high-tech missile defense system in South Korea.
The missile, fired from a submarine off the eastern North Korean coastal town of Sinpo, reached into Japan’s air defense identification zone, according to Seoul and Tokyo officials.
Bermudez said the latest missile appears to have been fired underwater from a submarine, rather than from a submersible test barge, which he said may have been the case for the North’s SLBM test last December.
Launching long-range ballistic missiles from submarines is stealthier than land launching.
“Considering the North’s irrational decision-making system under the one-man dictatorship, and the hard-to-predict character of Kim Jong Un, it is fair to say that the risks of the threats becoming real are very high”, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Wednesday while visiting soldiers on the front lines.
According to KCNA, Kim watched from an observation post as North Korean officials and scientists conducted the test-firing, which the agency said was carried out without “any adverse impact” on neighboring countries.
They are known to have vertical ballistic missile launch tubes built into the sail of the submarine.
The U.N. Security Council met for two hours on Wednesday to discuss North Korea’s latest provocative move and agreed to consider a statement condemning the launch. Analysts say the flight showed North Korea has made progress in its push to be able to strike US forces throughout the region.
North Korea is one of the most militarized countries in the world, with a million-man army in a nation of only 25 million people.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the launch an “impermissible and outrageous act” that poses a grave threat to Japan.
Meanwhile, in separate talks with Yun on the sidelines, Wang “strongly” demanded Seoul abandon plans to let the U.S. Forces Korea station a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery in southern Korea.
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Wednesday’s launch came two days after the US and South Korea began their 12-day Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercises, prompting North Korean threats of retaliation for the military drills, which it views as an invasion rehearsal.
