© KCNA/Reuters
North Korea has boasted about the successful completion of its latest ballistic missile test which demonstrated
Pyongyang's capability to launch a pre-emptive strike on South Korea's ports and airfields hosting the "US imperialists' nuclear war hardware."
Pyongyang launched three projectiles in the eastward direction between 5:45am and 6:40am Tuesday, from an area near the North Korean city of Hwangju. The missiles, two Scuds, and one Rodong, flew some 500 to 600 kilometers before crashing into the East Sea, South Korea's joint chiefs of staff announced. The distance is more than that required to hit any part of South Korea.
On Wednesday, the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), revealed that the test had been carried out by Hwasong artillery units of the KPA Strategic Force, under the watchful eye of the country's leader Kim Jong Un and General Kim Rak Gyom, commander of the Strategic Force.
The drill "demonstrated the combat capability of the Hwasong artillery units," under simulated conditions of "making preemptive strikes" at ports and airfields in South Korea where the "US imperialists' nuclear war hardware is to be hurled," the statement said. The test also helped examine the "operational features of the detonating devices of nuclear warheads" mounted on the ballistic rockets at the"designated altitude over the target area."
Tuesday launch was Pyongyang's latest show of force after the US and South Korea agreed to place Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile interceptor system in Seongju, some 200 miles southeast of Seoul. On July 9, North Korea fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) also against the decision to by the US to station its missile defense system at its borders.
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