Iran Press/Asia: “We cannot but develop nonstop super-powerful weapon systems to remove the potential and direct threats to the security of our country that exist in the south,” Kim said on Friday, reported Reuters citing state news agency KCNA.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un personally watched the test-fire of two short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday, the first test since Kim met with the US President Donald Trump last month and agreed to revive denuclearization talks.
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The missile tests raise doubts about the revival of denuclearization talks, which stalled after the collapse of a second summit between Kim and Trump in Hanoi in February.
An official at Seoul’s defense ministry said the missiles were believed to be a new type of short-range ballistic missile, an assessment echoed on Friday by the U.S.-South Korea Combined Forces Command (CFC).
A joint review with the United States showed that both missiles flew some 600 km (373 miles), further than similar previous missile tests, the defense official told Reuters.
The official also said the missiles bore features similar to Russia’s SS-26 Iskander and the ones the North tested in May - a relatively small, fast missile that experts say is easier to hide, launch and maneuver in flight.
The KCNA report did not mention Trump or the United States but said Kim criticized South Korean authorities for staging joint military exercises, which Trump promised to end after his first meeting with Kim in June 2018.
Both South Korea and the US responded negatively to the tests.
However, as a precondition, North Korea says it would only negotiate when the joint US-South Korean military drills end.
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Video is taken from Reuters.
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