North Korea announced on Thursday that it had successfully personally tested its new solid-fuel ICBM under the supervision of its leader Kim Jong Un, just days after it threatened to shoot down US spy planes that violated its airspace mandate .
• Also read: North Korea launches ‘unidentified ballistic missile’
• Also read: Pyongyang is threatening to shoot down any US spy plane that violates its airspace
A beaming Kim, flanked by his wife and top aides, was shown cheering enthusiastically by state media after a Hwasong-18, a device believed only to have been used by North Korea’s military, was fired on Wednesday and only once before, in April.
The rocket traveled 1,001 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 6,648 km before crashing into the East Sea, official news agency KCNA said, using the Korean name for the Sea of Japan.
Experts say the flight time of around 70 minutes is comparable to that of some ICBMs previously launched by North Korea.
By February, a Hwasong-15 had traveled 989 kilometers.
Wednesday’s test was a “big explosion” that shook “the entire planet,” KCNA commented.
According to Seoul-based specialist site NK News, it was conducted from a launch pad designed to look like a natural park surrounded by ponds and trees at a private home owned by the Kim family east of Pyongyang.
Strengthen the nuclear arsenal
Kim Jong Un pledged on the occasion a “series of stronger military offensives” until the US and South Korea change their policy towards the north, the agency said.
The confirmation of the shooting, which the South Korean army reported on Wednesday, comes at a time when relations between the two Koreas are at rock bottom.
The leading North Korean last year described his country’s nuclear status as “irreversible” and called for an increased build-up of armaments, especially tactical nuclear weapons.
Referring to the “unstable situation” on the Korean peninsula, Kim Jong Un called for “more intensive efforts” to strengthen North Korea’s nuclear arsenal on the occasion of this latest test.
In response, South Koreans and Americans pledged that if North Korea decided to use nuclear weapons against them, it would expose itself to a nuclear response and the “end” of its current administration.
Wednesday’s shooting was “a serious provocation undermining the peace and security of the Korean peninsula” and violates United Nations sanctions on Pyongyang, the South Korean army general staff responded on Wednesday, urging the north to put an end to such acts to put.
The United Nations, the United States and their allies, including France, also condemned it in the strongest possible terms on Wednesday.
“It unnecessarily fuels tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region,” the US National Security Council warned.
Japanese government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno cautiously compared this ICBM to the solid fuel rocket first launched in April, warning that these devices have “an immediate firing advantage” over rockets. Liquid fuel is available to the regime in Pyongyang.
“Crucial Measures”
On Monday, North Korea threatened to shoot down US spy planes violating its airspace and condemned Washington’s plan to send a ballistic missile submarine near the Korean peninsula.
A spokesman for North Korea’s defense ministry said the United States had “intensified its espionage activities,” citing spy planes making what were described as “provocative” flights for eight consecutive days in July.
“There is no guarantee that an accident as shocking as the downing of the US military’s strategic reconnaissance aircraft in the East Sea of Korea will not happen,” the airline added.
Kim Jong Un’s influential sister Kim Yo Jong said a US spy plane twice violated her country’s airspace on Monday morning.
The US announced in April that one of its nuclear submarines would call at a South Korean port for the first time in decades, without giving a specific date.
In response to North Korean weapons tests, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol this year intensified defense cooperation with Washington and organized joint military exercises.
Recent satellite imagery also suggests that Pyongyang is preparing for a large military parade later this month to mark the anniversary of the Korean War armistice on July 27, known in the North as Victory Day.