North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed that Pyongyang’s response would be firm and that it would use an atomic bomb in the event of a nuclear attack against his country, the official North Korean news agency reported on Saturday.
The agency quotes Kim as saying that Pyongyang “will respond decisively with nuclear weapons to nuclear weapons, and to total confrontation with ruthless confrontation.”
The agency indicated that Kim personally supervised the missile launch by North Korea on Friday.
Since Kim announced in September that North Korea had formally instituted a policy that would make its nuclear status “irreversible,” Washington has stepped up regional security cooperation, including through joint military exercises, and has been seeking ways to strengthen the defenses that he provides. Seoul and Tokyo.
North Korea’s official news agency KCNA reported that Kim criticized what he called “an aggressive war exercise” and said that if the United States continued to threaten his country, Pyongyang would “resolutely retaliate with nuclear weapons against nuclear weapons and all confrontation with a merciless total confrontation.
KCNA reported that Kim attended the rocket launch “along with his beloved daughter and wife.” Photos released by state media show a beaming Kim walking in front of a giant rocket, accompanied by a girl in a jacket and red shoes.
Experts say Kim’s children are very rarely mentioned in state media, and this could be the first official confirmation of his daughter’s existence.
Friday’s launch of the new-class Hwasong-17 missile “clearly demonstrated the reliability of a major new strategic weapon system,” according to KCNA.
“Kim Jong Un said he came to reaffirm that the DPRK’s nuclear forces have reached a new maximum capacity that can be relied upon to deter any nuclear threat,” she added, using North Korea’s official name.
The UN Security Council’s agenda says it will meet next Monday to discuss the North Korean case after Pyongyang conducted a new ICBM test on Friday.
A senior US administration official said earlier that North Korea’s latest missile test involved “a long-range missile that could hit many countries,” adding that the UN Security Council should meet to discuss the matter.
For its part, Japan has asked the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on North Korea’s missile launch.
In the latest condemnation, UN Secretary-General António Guterres sharply criticized North Korea’s ballistic missile launch, reiterating his call for Pyongyang to “immediately stop any further provocative steps,” according to his deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.
Haq added that Guterres also urged North Korea to abide by Security Council resolutions banning ballistic missile launches and take “immediate steps to resume dialogue leading to sustainable peace and the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
