Yesterday’s missiles flew about 500 kilometers into the sea off the east coast city of Wonsan and probably were part of the Soviet- developed Scud series.
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“We are reviewing the civil organization’s request to visit North Korea and deliver anti-tuberculosis drugs as the form of humanitarian aid”, said the unnamed MoU source, News1 agency reported.
Tensions have been especially high this week as US and South Korean forces hold their annual joint military exercises known as Key Resolve and Foal Eagle.
The North also announced it had scrapped all agreements with the South on commercial exchange projects and would “liquidate” South Korean assets left behind in its territory.
The North Korean leader made the remarks while attending a ballistic missile launch, according to KCNA, without divulging when or where it took place.
North Korea was hit by strengthened United Nations sanctions last week in response to its recent fourth nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.
The exercises were also condemned by the Russian Foreign Ministry, which said they only serve to escalate the situation on the Peninsula.
The North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, which handles inter-Korea affairs, also threatened unspecified actions that it said would deal “a devastating end to Park Geun-hye and her party”, referring to the South’s leader.
The South Korean assets at Kaesong include buildings, manufacturing equipment and finished products.
Such missile firings by the North are not uncommon as a way of protesting annual military drills carried out by Seoul and Washington.
North Korea has issued almost daily reports this week of Kim’s instructions to fight South Korea and the United States as those two allies began large-scale military drills.
It was the first time the North has publicly portrayed what its designs look like, though it remains unclear whether the North has a functioning warhead of that size or if it is simply trying to develop one. The South Korean Defense Ministry said it believes the missile hasn’t been proven functional.
However, South Korea’s defence ministry said it thought the North had “not yet secured miniaturised nuclear warheads ” .
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Information from secretive, authoritarian North Korea is often impossible to confirm, and the country’s state media have a history of photo manipulation. “I’d say the young man needs to pay more attention to the North Korean people and taking care of them, than in pursuing these sorts of reckless capabilities”, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said of Kim on Wednesday.
