(Seoul) North Korea on Saturday defended its recent round of missile tests, presenting them as a legitimate defense against what it calls U.S. military threats.
Posted at 8:19 p.m.
The communist country carried out six firings in less than two weeks, the latest being that of two ballistic missiles on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the North launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) over Japan, forcing some of the archipelago’s residents to take cover.
“The DPRK’s (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) missile test launch is a regular and planned self-defense measure to defend the country’s security and regional peace against direct US military threats that last for more than half a century,” said the North Korean civil aviation agency without specifying which launch it was, according to the official KCNA agency.
State media released the statement after the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which holds its annual meeting in Montreal, on Friday condemned ballistic tests carried out by Pyongyang in recent months and called them a danger. for civil aviation.
The reclusive country considers this resolution adopted by the ICAO as “a political provocation by the United States and its vassal forces aimed at undermining the sovereignty of the DPRK”.
For their part, Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have intensified their joint military exercises in recent weeks, and carried out new maneuvers on Thursday involving a US Navy destroyer belonging to the strike group of the USS aircraft carrier. Ronald Reagan.
The launches come amid a record year of weapons testing by North Korea, which leader Kim Jong-un has said is an ‘irreversible’ nuclear power, ending the nuclear war. possibility of denuclearization talks.
Analysts say Pyongyang has taken advantage of the stalemate at the United Nations to carry out ever more provocative weapons tests.
In addition, Seoul and Washington have been warning for months that Pyongyang will conduct another nuclear test, likely after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) congress on Oct. 16.