US territory reachable
North Korea: Progress in expanding nuclear capability
11/19/2022, 6:52 p.m
North Korea sees its nuclear clout strengthened with new types of missiles. Now “every nuclear threat” can be deterred, ruler Kim is quoted as saying in the state media. For its part, the United States has reacted to North Korea’s latest missile test by demonstrating military strength.
North Korea sees progress in expanding its nuclear capability to deter the United States in what it claims to be a successful test of a new ICBM. With the “new type” missile, the armed forces have another means at hand to “deter any nuclear threat,” state media in the largely isolated country quoted ruler Kim Jong Un as saying. The US demonstrated military strength for the second straight day in response to the missile launch, sending long-range bombers to the Korean Peninsula for an air exercise with South Korea.
US and South Korean fighter jets escorted American B-1B long-range bombers during another air exercise on Saturday, according to the South Korean military.
(Photo: picture alliance / ZUMAPRESS.com)
Kim Jong Un had overseen the test and surprisingly appeared with his teenage daughter and wife Ri Sol Ju at the rocket launch. State media published photos of the daughter for the first time. Observers rated the fact that Kim appeared with her as a targeted gesture to demonstrate self-confidence.
Kim again accused the United States of being on a confrontational course and threatening North Korea with nuclear weapons – an accusation that Washington rejects. Kim threatened to respond “to nuclear weapons with nuclear weapons and to total confrontation with all-out confrontation.” Any military counter-action by the US and its allies, including South Korea, would lead to self-destruction, he threatened.
“World’s most powerful strategic weapon”
South Korea said North Korea on Friday fired a missile for the second time this month that could theoretically reach US territory. North Korea identified the missile as “Hwasongpho-17” and boasted that it now had “the world’s most powerful strategic weapon”. After a flight at an altitude of up to 6040.9 kilometers and a distance of almost 1000 kilometers, she fell into the water in a previously targeted area in the Sea of Japan (Korean: East Sea).
The EU, the US and their allies South Korea and Japan condemned the missile test. UN resolutions ban Pyongyang from testing ICBMs and other ballistic missiles that, depending on the design, can be armed with a nuclear warhead. North Korea has significantly increased the pace and scope of its ballistic missile testing since the beginning of the year.
A released EU statement said Pyongyang’s continued efforts to develop increasingly menacing delivery systems for weapons of mass destruction endangered all countries. The new missile test is illegal and ruthless. The US government, on the other hand, classified the test as deeply troubling but not a threat to the United States. With every missile launch, North Korea learns something new – and that is worrying, said the communications director of the National Security Council, John Kirby, on Friday (local time) in Washington. North Korea’s missile program continues to grow, which is destabilizing not only the Korean Peninsula but the entire region.