Kim fired up over missiles

Joy at test launches

Kim Jong-un was all smiles after North Korea test-fired a new weapon.

Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency said Kim (inset) expressed “great satisfaction” over his military’s “mysterious and amazing success rates” in recent testing activity and vowed to build up “invincible military capabilities no one dare provoke,” The Associated Press reported.

One photo published by North Korea’s official newspaper (inset) showed Kim beaming and celebrating with military officials.

South Korea said the North fired off at least two short-range ballistic missiles Friday, the sixth time it’s launched weapons since July. The tests have revealed a new rocket artillery system and two shortrange mobile ballistic missile systems that make it easier for the North to strike targets in South Korea, including US military bases there. Kim oversaw both Friday’s launch and one a week ago, despite sending a letter to President Trump apologizing for the recent rocket tests.

In a statement Saturday, the Korean Central News Agency criticized ongoing US-South Korea military drills as an invasion rehearsal that forces North Korea to constantly develop “powerful physical means and their deployment for an actual war.” The United States has scaled back its military exercises with South Korea and halted the deployment of long-range missiles and aircraft carriers to the region since Trump first sat down with Kim last year.

But North Korea insists even smaller military drills violate agreements reached between the leaders.