SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised the launch of “a new-type of tactical guided weapon” as a “solemn warning to South Korean military warmongers,” state news wire KCNA said Friday.
Kim “personally organized and guided” the firing of the “state-of-the-art weaponry system” on Thursday, KCNA said, a reference to the two short-range missiles fired into the sea.
It was Pyongyang’s first missile test since an impromptu June meeting between Kim and US President Donald Trump in the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea.
The North has warned that US-South Korean war games could affect the planned resumption of denuclearisation talks between Washington and Pyongyang.
Kim was “gratified” with the outcome of the test, the state news wire said.
Kim complained that South Korean officials “show such strange double-dealing behavior” by talking peace, but then “behind the scene, shipping ultra-modern offensive weapons and holding joint military exercises.”
The South Korean “chief executive” — presumably a reference to South Korean President Moon Jae-in — “should not make a mistake of ignoring the warning from Pyongyang,” KCNA said.
Kim said North Korea must “develop nonstop super powerful weapon systems to remove the potential and direct threats” to national security from South Korea.
Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Thursday that the North “fired one unidentified projectile at 5:34 am and the other at 5:57 am, from Wonsan areas into the East Sea, and they flew around 430 kilometers (267 miles).”
The US later confirmed that the missiles were “short range.”
© Agence France-Presse