Kim Jong-un celebrates ‘successful’ ICBM launch
North Korea held a huge feast Sunday to celebrate the alleged successful launch of its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Friday night, Pyongyang’s state-run media reported Monday.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju appeared along with high-profile members of the Workers’ Party of Korea and missile developers — Ri Pyong-chol, member of the National Defense Commission; Kim Rak-gyon, commander of the Strategic Force in charge of missile operations; veteran rocket scientist Kim Jong-sik; Second Academy of Natural Sciences President Jang Chang-ha; and Strategic Force Deputy Commander Jon Il-ho.
“The grand success of yet another ICBM test, even before the whole world overcomes the shock of the previous launch, has given our military and people ineffable joy,” Ri Man-gon, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party, was quoted as saying by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
He added the success was the fruit of its two major breakthroughs — the “July 4 revolution,” the alleged ICBM test-firing earlier this month, and the “March 18 revolution,” which refers to its newly developed rocket engine test. The vice chairman lauded the developers who contributed to the “mobility” and “striking power” of its missiles.
The North has shown rapid progress in missile technology, firing two long-range missiles in only 24 days. The country has claimed that its ICBM dubbed Hwasong-14 is capable of hitting the U.S. mainland.
The state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper also heralded the ICBM tests in rapid succession, calling on the U.S. to give up the international sanctions slapped on the North.
“Unless the U.S. fundamentally eradicates anti-DPRK policies and nuclear threats, we will never put our nuclear weapons and ballistic rockets on the negotiation table,” the editorial read Monday, saying Pyongyang will never clip its wings on the way toward an anti-U.S. decisive battle.
“This country is not going to endure its geopolitical fate anymore. A political upheaval has come from the era when the U.S. threatened us with its nuclear weapons to this new era when we can handle the U.S. with a gunshot,” it said.