North Korea test-fires new underwater ballistic missile
North Korea says it has test-fired a new underwater ballistic missile, describing it as a “world level strategic weapon.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was at the site of the event and gave the order of the missile launch from an attack submarine, the country’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported early on Saturday.
According to the KCNA, the weapon was developed based on a plan proposed by Kim.
Describing the test as an "eye-opening success,” Kim stressed that the North Korean army is capable of “striking and wiping out in any waters the hostile forces.”
It is not still clear that the missile was the controversial KN-11, the North Korean submarine-launched ballistic missile reportedly under development.
Some reports say North Korea earlier conducted three tests with the missile on an underwater test platform near the country's coastal city of Sinpo in October 2014, on January 23, and April 22, 2015.
On Friday, Pyongyang dismissed US allegations that its space research is in fact a concealed ballistic missile program, pledging to send more satellites into orbit.
North Korea is under UN sanctions over launching rockets considered by the West as ballistic missiles aimed at delivering nuclear warheads.
Pyongyang says its numerous missile tests, slammed mainly by the US and South Korea, seek to boost defense capabilities in the face of enemy threats.
The Korean Peninsula has been locked in a cycle of military rhetoric since the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953 and ended in an armistice. No peace deal has been signed since then, meaning that Pyongyang and Seoul remain technically at war.
North Korea accuses US President Barack Obama of plotting with regional allies to topple its government. Pyongyang says it will not relinquish its nuclear deterrence unless the US ends its hostile policy toward North Korea and dissolves the US-led UN command in South Korea.
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