North Korea said leader Kim Jong Un supervised successful tests of two types of missiles
One missile was designed to carry a “super-large conventional warhead” and the other likely for a nuclear warhead, as Mr Kim ordered officials to bolster up his country’s military capabilities to repel U.S.-led threats.
The tests were apparent references to the multiple missile launches that neighbouring countries said North Korea performed off its east coast on Wednesday, extending its run of weapons display as confrontations with the US and South Korea escalate.
The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Thursday that Mr Kim oversaw the launch of the country’s newly built Hwasongpho-11-Da-4.5 ballistic missile tipped with a dummy “4.5-ton super-large conventional warhead”.
It said the test firing was meant to verify an ability to accurately hit a 200-mile-range target, suggesting it is a weapon aimed at striking sites in South Korea.
KCNA said Mr Kim also guided the launch of an improved “strategic” cruise missile, a word implying the weapons were developed to carry nuclear warheads.
The agency cited Mr Kim as stressing the need to continue to “bolster up the nuclear force” and acquire “overwhelming offensive capability in the field of conventional weapons, too”.
“Only when we have strong power, can we contain and frustrate the enemies’ strategic misjudgment and will to use armed forces,” he said, according to KCNA.
North Korea has been pushing to introduce a variety of sophisticated weapons systems designed to attack both South Korea and the mainland US to deal with what it calls its rivals’ intensifying security threats.
Many foreign experts say North Korea would ultimately want to use its enlarged arsenal as leverage to win greater concessions in future dealings with the US
Worries about North Korea deepened last week as it disclosed photos of a secretive facility built to enrich uranium for nuclear bombs.
Since May, North Korea has also floated thousands of trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea, prompting the South to resume anti-North loudspeaker broadcasts at border areas.
