Missile test a family affair
N. Korea flexes muscles with Kim, wife, daughter in attendance
Seoul: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw a test of Pyongyang’s newest intercontinental ballistic missile with his daughter for the first time, state media reported.
Declaring that he would meet perceived US nuclear threats with nukes of his own, Kim supervised the launch on Friday of the black-andwhite missile, which the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said was the Hwasong-17 – dubbed the “monster missile” by analysts.
The launch was successful, KCNA said, adding that the “test-fire clearly proved the reliability of the new major strategic weapon system”.
KCNA said Kim attended the launch “together with his beloved daughter and wife”, and state media images showed a beaming Kim accompanied by a young girl in a puffer jacket and red shoes as he walked in front of the missile.
North Korean state media has never mentioned Kim’s children,
and this was the first official confirmation that he had a daughter, experts said.
The latest launch showed that “the nuclear forces of the DPRK
have secured another reliable and maximum capacity to contain any nuclear threat”, KCNA said, using the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Since Kim declared North Korea an “irreversible” nuclear state in September, the United States has ramped up regional security cooperation.
South Korea’s military said it staged joint air drills with the United States yesterday involving the US B-1B long-range heavy bomber.
The B-1B was deployed to the Korean peninsula earlier this month too during “Vigilant Storm”, the largest-ever Us-south Korean air exercise.
The UN Security Council said yesterday that it would discuss North Korea in a meeting tomorrow.
Kim slammed what he called “hysteric aggression war drills” and said that if the United States continued to make threats, Pyongyang would “resolutely react to nukes with nuclear weapons and to total confrontation with all-out confrontation”, KCNA reported.