North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to respond to U.S. nuclear "threats" with his own nuclear weapons, state media said Saturday, after Kim attended the launch of a powerful “new type” of long-range missile with family members a day earlier.
Kim lambasted recent joint U.S. military drills with South Korea and Japan, as well as announcements that the U.S. was seeking to strengthen its “extended deterrence” commitment to Tokyo and Seoul, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency.
Extended deterrence refers to the United States’ readiness to provide South Korea and Japan with all necessary options, both nuclear and conventional, to deter aggression by the North.
In a symbol of its extended deterrence commitment, the U.S. sent a B-1B strategic bomber later Saturday for joint exercises with Seoul over the Korean Peninsula.
Kim said the situation has required his country “to substantially accelerate the bolstering of its overwhelming nuclear deterrence."
If the allies “continue to pose threats to the DPRK, frequently introducing nuclear strike means, our Party and government will resolutely react to nukes with nuclear weapons and to total confrontation with all-out confrontation,” Kim was quoted as saying, using the acronym for the North’s formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The nuclear-armed country’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile — its second this month — stoked concern in Japan, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida calling the move “intolerable” after the weapon fell into waters some 210 kilometers off Hokkaido in Japan’s exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles (370 km) from its coast.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said the the launch of the Hwasong-17 ICBM was part of Pyongyang’s "top-priority defence-building strategy" to steadily bolster its arsenal, with the North labeling the missile "the strongest strategic weapon in the world."
The KCNA report said the missile had traveled almost 1,000 km, flying for 69 minutes and hitting a maximum altitude of 6,040 km. The North Korean figures for the launch, which was believed to have been fired on a “lofted trajectory” that saw the missile fly higher into space but travel a shorter distance, matched those estimated by Tokyo.
Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said Friday that the ministry had estimated the missile could have traveled around 15,000 km had it been fired on a standard trajectory, putting all of the United States within striking distance.
KCNA called the launch a “test-fire” that “clearly proved the reliability of the new major strategic weapon system,” while Kim urged ICBM and tactical nuclear units “to intensify their training with high vigilance so as to perfectly discharge their important strategic duty in any situation and at any moment.”
Some experts say the North's recent spate of launches — more than 65 missiles this year — may also signal a more ominous development by the nuclear-armed country: advancements toward a weapon capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads.
Observers say this may be the intended purpose of its "monster" Hwasong-17, the world's largest road-mobile missile.
One of the missiles was believed to have failed in flight over the skies of Pyongyang in March, with the Kim regime attempting to cover it up with a slick, but doctored, video released in state-run media days later.
But David Schmerler, a senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, identified a burn scar at the reported launch site outside Pyongyang after it was fired on Friday, signaling that the North's claim may have been accurate.
The "burn scar corresponds to (the) pictured launch site, suggesting these images are genuinely from yesterday and that the Hwasong-17 flew properly this time (unlike on March 16)," Ankit Panda, of the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote on Twitter.
The United Nations Security Council said Saturday that it would discuss the North Korean missile launch at a meeting Monday. Pyongyang is banned under U.N. resolutions from testing ballistic missiles.
The KCNA report also revealed for the first time photos of an unnamed daughter of Kim.
It said Kim “came out to the site for the historic major strategic weapon test-fire, a crucial milestone in bolstering up the nuclear forces of the DPRK, together with his beloved daughter and wife, to personally guide the whole course of the test-fire.”
The photos showed a girl wearing a puffy white coat holding hands with Kim as they viewed the massive Hwasong-17, believed to be the world’s largest road-mobile missile.
Kim’s wife, Ri Sol Ju, has long been a fixture in state-run media, with photos showing her accompanying her husband on a variety of visits, including to missile launches. But while former basketball star Dennis Rodman had revealed the existence of a baby daughter named Ju-ae in 2013, there had been no official confirmation until the report.
Rodman visited Kim in North Korea for a basketball tour, saying that he spent time with Kim's family at an oceanside villa and described him as "a good dad."
Kim is believed to have at least three children, including one son, according to analysts.
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