North Korea stated it has secured the capability to attack US military bases in the Pacific a day after South Korea confirmed Pyongyang had test launched two mid-range ballistic missiles.
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The launch came about two hours after a similar test failed, South Korea’s military said, and covered 400 km (250 miles), more than halfway towards the southwest coast of Japan’s main island of Honshu.
Mr Kim, who personally monitored Wednesday’s Musudan missile test, applauded a “great event” that significantly bolstered the North’s pre-emptive nuclear attack capability, the official KCNA news agency reported.
The North launched two Musudan intermediate-range missiles from Wonsan, Gangwon Province on Wednesday morning.
The Musudan has a theoretical range of anywhere between 2,500km and 4,000km, with the upper estimate covering U.S. military bases as far away as Guam.
In April, North Korea attempted unsuccessfully to launch three suspected Musudan missiles, but all exploded midair or crashed, according to South Korean defense officials.
Mr Kim was speaking after twin tests on Wednesday of the Hwasong-10 missile, known internationally as the Musudan.
Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests this year have caused near unanimity of view on the necessity of having more expansive and effective sanctions.
“The United States strongly condemns the provocative actions by the North Korean government that is a flagrant violation of their global obligations”, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said at a regular press briefing.
North Korea, which is developing nuclear weapons, is banned by United Nations resolutions from any use of ballistic missile technology.
North Korea has previously made at least four previous attempts this year to test Musudan missiles.
Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani said Wednesday’s launch demonstrated a “certain level of capability”, and could lead to a further strengthening of North Korea’s ballistic missile capabilities that can cover Japanese territory.
North Korea’s last media report of any missile launch was in 2014, when Kim Jong Un oversaw the test-firing of “newly developed ultra-precision tactical guided missiles”.
Lewis, the missile expert, warned that North Korea would eventually iron out any technical problems with the Musudan and then use the lessons to increase the threat to the US. “Had it been fired at its normal angle, it would have flown to its full range”.
The definition of success in missile testing can be somewhat subjective; North Korea gets to decide the parameters it was looking to accomplish and it looks like Kim Jong-un is satisfied with the 1,000 kilometer apogee and the 400 kilometer range accomplishments. It was the first successful launch of the weapon by North Korean forces.
North Korea’s latest missile test will likely be addressed at a closed-door regional security forum now underway in Beijing that includes diplomats from North Korea, the USA and South Korea.
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North Korea has recently claimed a series of breakthroughs in its push to build a long-range nuclear missile that can strike the American mainland. It is worth noting that North and South Korea are in a truce instead of a peace treaty, which means that both countries are, technically, still at war.
