North Korea fires strategic missile barrage to show off readiness of rogue state’s ‘nuclear combat force’
NORTH Korea has fired a barrage of missiles in to show off what it says is the readiness of its “nuclear combat force”.
Kim Jong-un’s regime announced the missiles travelled 1250 miles over the sea towards Japan before “precisely” hitting their target, without specifying what the targets were.
The launches came after the nuclear-armed North has fired three banned missiles in the past week.
They included an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test Pyongyang said showed its capacity for a “fatal nuclear counterattack on the hostile forces”.
The test of four Hwasal-2 missiles has heightened fears that North Korea might conduct its first nuclear test since 2017.
The latest drill “clearly demonstrated once again the war posture of the DPRK nuclear combat force” said state news agency.
It was using the acronym for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea but didn’t mention if Kim was present at the tests, as he often is.
The ICBM launched on Saturday landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone and was Pyongyang’s first launch in seven weeks.
The provocative tests were all timed around joint military drills held by South Korea, Japan and the United States in the Sea of Japan on Wednesday.
Earlier this week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister, Kim Yo-jong, described the Pacific as “our firing range”.
The same day, Pyongyang rejected condemnation by the United Nations chief of its recent ballistic missile launches, saying it was “unfair and unbalanced” and ignored the North’s right to self-defence.
US and South Korean officials took part in a simulated, exercise that focused on the possibility of North Korea using a nuclear weapon, said the Pentagon.
North Korea has forged ahead steadily in developing and mass producing new missiles.
That’s despite sanctions imposed by United Nations Security Council resolutions that ban the nuclear-armed country’s missile activities.
Last year saw a record number of missile launches by North Korea with 35 fired off as the Hermit Kingdom ramps up its nuclear weapons programme.
The tests came Kim appeared for the first time with his 12-year-old daughter, fuelling speculation she could one day replace him as the hermit kingdom’s tyrannical ruler.
The pair were pictured walking hand in hand inspecting the Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile before it was fired.
Earlier this month she was seen celebrating 75 years since his country’s army was founded.
Kim Ju Ae, believed to be nine or ten years old, helped him inspect troops in capital city Pyongyang.
She joined Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju, 33, for a banquet with military officials.
Kim is believed to have as many as three children, two girls and a boy, experts say.