North Korea confirms successful test firing of new missile type

ANKARA (AA) – North Korean leader on Saturday confirmed the launch of a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), threatening again to use nuclear weapons if "enemies" continue to pose a threat to his country.

Kim Jong-un, along with his wife and daughter, inspected and witnessed the launch of the new-type ICBM Hwasongpho-17 at Pyongyang International Airport on Friday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported.

"(The missile) traveled up to a maximum altitude of 6 040.9 km (3,753 miles) and flew a distance of 999.2 km (620 miles) for 4 135s before accurately landing on the preset area in open waters of the East Sea of Korea," it said.

Kim, while praising the successful test fire of the ICBM, said he came to confirm once again that his country's nuclear forces have secured another reliable and maximum capacity to contain any nuclear threat.

"If the enemies 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 said, according to the media outlet.

On Friday, the US, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand strongly condemned Pyongyang’s latest missile test, calling it a "brazen violation" of multiple UN security resolutions.

However, Kim accused the US and its allies of posing a military threat to his country and said North Korea urgently requires substantially accelerating the bolstering of its overwhelming nuclear deterrence.

He warned the US and South Korea that any military action against his country would result in "self-destruction."

"The U.S. imperialists make a military bluffing in the Korean peninsula and its surrounding area while being engrossed in ‘strengthened offer of extended deterrence’ to their allies and war exercises, the more offensive the DPRK's military counteraction will be," he said.

Kim reaffirmed his party's defense-building strategy of steadily increasing nuclear strategic weapons.

"He urged the national defense scientific research sector to put more vigorous spurs to the development of Juche-based strategic weapons of Korean style and the ICBM units and all the units for the operation of tactical nukes to intensify their training with high vigilance so as to perfectly discharge their important strategic duty in any situation and at any moment," the news agency reported.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen further as a result of recent joint military exercises between South Korea and the US, as well as North Korean missile tests.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid