North warns U.S. after ICBM test, says launch shows ‘options’

North Korea

North warns U.S. after ICBM test, says launch shows ‘options’

Published: 19 Dec. 2023, 18:40 Updated: 19 Dec. 2023, 19:36

SARAH KIM
kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, accompanied by his daughter Ju-ae, center, watches the launch of a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in a drill at an undisclosed location in a photo released by the Rodong Sinmun Tuesday. [NEWS1]

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned that the test-fire of a solid-fuel Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Monday showed what he would do if the United States made a "wrong decision," according to state media Tuesday.

In turn, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol told a Cabinet meeting Tuesday that Pyongyang would come to realize its provocations — including its back-to-back missile launches — will only bring the regime "greater pain."

On Monday, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that the North launched a long-range missile at a lofted angle from around Pyongyang at 8:24 a.m., with the projectile landing in the East Sea.

Pyongyang's latest ICBM launch, its fifth this year alone, was immediately condemned by Seoul, Washington and Tokyo as violating UN Security Council resolutions.

In an English-language report Tuesday, the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) confirmed the ICBM launched Monday flew 1,002.3 kilometers for 4,415 seconds at a maximum altitude of 6,518.2 kilometers before "accurately" hitting the East Sea.

The Central Military Commission of the North's ruling Workers' Party gave an order to "take a powerful warning measure under the grave situation, in which the hostile forces' anti-DPRK military threat that has persisted for the whole of this year is getting evermore undisguised and dangerous," reported the KCNA.

DPRK is the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Leader Kim said that the "successful" drill is a "practical demonstration of the actual condition and reliability of the formidable striking capabilities and absolute nuclear war deterrent possessed by the DPRK's armed forces."

He added that the drill was "an occasion to clearly show what action" it has prepared and "what option the DPRK would take when Washington makes a wrong decision against it," noting it displayed his regime's "will for toughest counteraction and its overwhelming strength."

North Korea launches a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at an undisclosed location Monday in a photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) Tuesday. The KCNA reported that the ICBM flew 1,002.3 kilometers for 4,415 seconds at a maximum altitude of 6,518.2 kilometers before landing in the East Sea. [YONHAP]

North Korea specifically called out a second meeting of the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) last Friday in Washington, where U.S. and South Korean security officials agreed to complete establishing guidelines on planning and operating a shared nuclear strategy by the middle of next year. The allies also decided to incorporate nuclear operations into joint military exercises starting as early as next year.

The KCNA reported on this meeting that the "U.S. and the military gangsters of the Republic of Korea held a nuclear war confab" and "openly revealed their intention to conduct large-scale joint drills under the simulated conditions of an actual war of 'nuclear retaliatory strike"' against the North.

Pyongyang also described the arrival of the U.S. nuclear-powered submarine USS Missouri at a Busan naval port Sunday as an "extremely provocative action" aimed at turning the Korean Peninsula into "an assembly base for all the U.S. nuclear strategic assets."

Through the latest launch, KCNA claimed that "the combat capability of ICBM unit was highly estimated" and verified the "rapid response posture of the strategic armed forces of the DPRK and the reliability of the most powerful strategic core striking means" of its military.

According to photos released by North Korean state media Tuesday, leader Kim observed the latest ICBM launch with his daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who was dressed in a pink fur jacket.

The photos included images of Earth presumably taken from the Hwasong-18 and leader Kim watching a transporter erector launcher carrying the missile seemingly ahead of its launch, demonstrating the mobility of its Hwasong-18s.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, right, appears to be monitoring the transporting of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in a photo released by the state-run Rodong Sinmun Tuesday. [YONHAP]

North Korea previously tested its Hwasong-18 solid-fuel ICBMs in April and July, which flew a similar trajectory to Monday's launch. Military analysts estimate that the Hwasong-18, if launched on a standard trajectory rather than at a lofted angle, could fly some 15,000 kilometers, putting the entire U.S. mainland, including Washington, in range.

"The North Korean regime will come to realize its provocations will only bring back to them greater pain," Yoon said in Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, calling its missile launches "a major and serious challenge to the Korean Peninsula and global security."

North Korea fired a short-range missile on Sunday, about 10 hours before its latest ICBM launch Monday.

In the meeting, Yoon highlighted the bilateral NCG's role in strengthening nuclear strategy with the United States and trilateral measures with Japan to respond to such North Korean threats.

"A strong nuclear-based South Korea-U. S. alliance is becoming a reality," Yoon said, noting that through the NCG, the "establishment of an integrated extended deterrence system between South Korea and the U.S. is within sight."

Yoon noted that South Korea, the United States and Japan have activated their trilateral real-time sharing of North Korean missile warning data and said that the latest ICBM launch confirmed the system's "smooth operation."

He pledged that the government would "provide solid support so that the people can live comfortably without any worries about a North Korean nuclear threat."

President Yoon Suk Yeol slams North Korea’s latest ICBM launch during a Cabinet meeting at the Yongsan presidential office in central Seoul on Tuesday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]