Kim Yo Jong Says North Korea Tested Intermediate-Range Strategic Missile

KCNA via EPA

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects military missiles.

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said on Saturday that North Korea had tested an intermediate-range strategic missile.

The South Korean military said earlier that North Korea had fired a ballistic missile that travelled more than 700 kilometres (435 miles) towards waters off the country’s east coast.

Kim Yo Jong, a senior official in North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, said a drill involving a “strategic weapon” had been conducted towards the eastern sea using the intermediate-range missile.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the drill, which was carried out by “a firepower sub-unit undertaking an exclusive special mission”, his sister said.

Referring to statements from Seoul and Tokyo regarding the missile’s flight distance, Kim Yo Jong said the figures demonstrated limitations in their tracking capabilities.

"Whenever we applied the wave-like trajectory mode to missiles, the enemy failed to track the targets from their first skip points," she said, without showing any evidence.

South Korea and Japan also "should acknowledge ‌the ⁠speed of the missile," she said without disclosing the speed. The missile was also capable of changing its flight orbit at a low altitude with artificial intelligence technology applied, she added.

"In other words, this means that there is no way to avoid this attack," she ⁠said.

North Korea has launched missile tests on more than 10 occasions so far this year. Pyongyang has sometimes said it was testing new types of weapons systems. Some of the ⁠tests have come after North Korea protested joint military drills between Seoul and Washington.

The launch came after Kim Yo Jong issued a statement on Friday that dismissed ⁠Seoul's demand for an apology for what it said were North Korean mines that seriously wounded South Korean soldiers in the Demilitarized Zone, a heavily fortified area between the two Koreas.

Source: Reuters



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