North Korea on Saturday broke its silence on its spate of missile tests — six in less than two weeks — saying the flurry of test-firings, including a dramatic launch over Japan for the first time since 2017, are for self-defense.
The missile tests were a “regular and planned self-defensive step for defending the country's security and the regional peace from the U.S. direct military threats that have lasted for more than half a century,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency quoted a spokesman for the country's National Aviation Administration as saying.
Until Saturday’s remarks, the nuclear-armed North’s state-run media apparatus, which usually trumpets its weapons tests, had not reported on a flurry of missile launches dating since May. The launches are believed to have included tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched weapons and missiles capable of performing “pull-up” maneuvers that make them more difficult to intercept.