(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with details; MODIFIES headline; ADDS photo, byline)
By Yi Wonju
SEOUL, March 17 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has test-fired a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in a show of the "toughest response posture" of its strategic forces against "aggressive" massive combined drills by the United States and South Korea, Pyongyang's state media reported Friday.
The nation's leader Kim Jong-un "guided" the launch the previous day together with his young daughter Ju-ae, as it served as an occasion to "give a stronger warning to the enemies intentionally escalating the tension" on the peninsula, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 17, 2023, shows the North firing a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile from the Sunan area in Pyongyang the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
It cited the "unstable security environment" in the region attributable to "provocative and aggressive large-scale war drills," referring to the South Korea-U.S. Freedom Shield (FS) exercise under way in a program coupled with major field trainings.
The drill involving the Hwasong-17 was "aimed at confirming the mobile and normal operation and reliability of the DPRK's nuclear war deterrent," the KCNA said in an English-language report.
It confirmed "the war readiness of the ICBM unit and the exceptional militancy of the DPRK's strategic forces and strictly verified their reliability," it added, using the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The KCNA said the ICBM, launched at Pyongyang International Airport, reached a maximum altitude of 6,045 kilometers and flew 1,000.2 km for 4,151 seconds before accurately landing on the preset area in the open waters off the East Sea. The Hwasong-17, called by observers here the "monster missile," was apparently shot at a lofted angle.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspects the test-firing of a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile on March 16, 2023, in this photo released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency the following day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
It came hours before South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol had summit talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo amid Washington's campaign to bolster trilateral security cooperation with the two key regional allies to counter the North's nuclear and missile threats.
Kim was quoted as stressing the need to "strike fear into the enemies" and warning that the allies' persistent military moves against the North will only bring "irreversible, grave threat" onto themselves.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (L), alongside his daughter Ju-ae, inspects the test-firing of a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile on March 16, 2023, in this photo released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency the following day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
He emphasized that the North will "react to nuclear weapons with nukes and frontal confrontation in kind" and called for "strictly maintaining the rapid response posture of the strategic forces to cope with any armed conflict and war."
Photos released by the KCNA showed Kim watching the launch with his second child, presumed to be around 10 years old. The secretive regime announced the first public appearance of his daughter in November last year, as the two inspected the launch of a Hwasong-17 together.
julesyi@yna.co.kr
(END)
