WNAM REPORT: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said Thursday his country’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) demonstrates the country’s “counteraction will” against its rivals, which he accused of escalating the regional situation.
The remarks came hours after the South Korean military said the North fired an ICBM on a lofted trajectory into the East Sea earlier in the day in its first launch of such a missile this year.
“The test-fire is an appropriate military action that fully meets the purpose of informing the rivals, who have intentionally escalated the regional situation and posed a threat to the security of our Republic recently, of our counteraction will,” Kim was quoted as saying in a statement.
“I affirm that the DPRK will never change its line of bolstering up its nuclear forces,” he said, referring to his country by the acronym of its official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
In the same dispatch, a North Korean defense ministry spokesperson said the North’s Missile Administration conducted the ICBM test-firing at Kim’s order and updated the recent records of the North’s strategic missile capability.
