North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said that the country’s “nuclear warheads need to be ready for use at any time”, according to the country’s state news agency.
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In the wake of the “gangster-like” UN resolution pushed by the United States and its South Korean ally, North Koreans are now “waiting for an order of combat to annihilate the enemy with their surging wrath”, he added.
According to KCNA, Mr Kim made his comments while monitoring the test firing of a new, high-calibre multiple rocket launcher on Thursday, just hours after the United Nations security council unanimously adopted the resolution penalising the North for its recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.
“North Korea’s rocket launch comes at the heels of the U.N. Security Council’s approval of its toughest sanctions against the regime in two decades, and that’s no coincidence”, he said in a statement.
Seoul and Washington had announced in February they would begin negotiations on installing THAAD on South Korean soil, in response to North Korea’s nuclear test and space rocket launch; the last one widely considered a veiled missile test.
A South Korean official from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who did not want to be named, citing office rules, said that North Korea fired six projectiles that flew about 100 to 150 kilometres (60 to 90 miles) before landing in the sea.
“THAAD is not only meant to defend against missiles from North Korea as the Pentagon and the South Korean Ministry of National Defense claim, but it would also be actively integrated, and used for interception in a USA missile defense system that is created to counter China”, Postol added.
In January, North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test, which it claimed was a hydrogen bomb.
Unlike North Korea’s mostly untested ballistic missiles program, THAAD has been in use for several years by the USA military to protect units in places such as Guam and Hawaii from potential attack.
A spokesman for South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles relations with the North, said Kim’s comments were not helpful and may have been intended for the domestic audience to boost morale in the face of the new United Nations sanctions.
North Korean citizens in the capital, Pyongyang, interviewed by The Associated Press said Thursday they believe their country can fight off any sanctions.
“And this is part of a process where he is able to ratchet up the pressure, increase his control internally, and brandish his credentials to be ‘protecting the motherland.’ And so all of this sort of helps him internally even though it may not ring true to many of us here outside”, he said.
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“Next week the US and South Korea begin annual military exercises on the peninsular – this always gets a reaction from Pyongyang”. “So we will see”. She recently warned of the North’s collapse, and the country’s parliament has passed a human rights bill that will enrage Pyongyang with criticism of the abysmal treatment of its citizens.
