Kim Jong-un during tests of the Hwaseong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile, March 24, 2022
©KCNA/EPA-EFE/Vostock Photo
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said that Pyongyang will continue to take countermeasures against the provocations of South Korea and the United States. The DPRK, as the politician stressed, is ready to respond “to nuclear weapons with nuclear weapons,” informs State radio station “Voice of Korea”.
“I will continue to make sure that the United States and South Korea, which are openly hostile to our republic, realize the recklessness of the large-scale military exercises that they often conduct in the Korean Peninsula region,” the radio station quoted Kim Jong-un as saying.
The radio station’s material also indicates that the launch of the Hwaseongpo-17 series of ICBMs was carried out on March 16 as a response to US and South Korean military exercises. Kim Jong-un watched the ICBM launch.
Launched by North Korea on March 16 ICBM flew about 70 min. and fell outside the exclusive economic zone of Japan. The military department of this country estimated the range of the North Korean missile at 1,000 km.
This launch was the fourth in four days. North Korea has stepped up its missile tests amid South Korean-American Freedom Shield exercises that Pyongyang sees as “preparation for a war of aggression” against it.
