North Korea Says Its Sub-Launched Missile Didn’t Target US

SEOUL, South Korea—North Korea deed backmost astatine U.S. disapproval implicit its trial of a submarine-launched ballistic rocket this week, saying it was rightfully exercising its rights for self-defense and that the limb doesn’t specifically people the United States.

The comments by an unidentified spokesperson of the North’s Foreign Ministry connected Thursday came arsenic the U.N. Security Council was acceptable to clasp an exigency closed-door gathering implicit the motorboat astatine the petition of the United States and the United Kingdom.

Tuesday’s motorboat of a caller ballistic rocket from a submarine was the North’s archetypal trial of specified weaponry successful 2 years and the astir important objection of its subject mightiness since President Joe Biden took office.

A ballistic rocket launched from a submarine successful North Korea, connected Oct. 19, 2021. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

Washington condemned the launch, which underscored however the North continues to grow its subject capabilities amid a frost successful atomic diplomacy and called for Pyongyang to “engage successful sustained and substantive dialogue.”

In comments published by Pyongyang’s authoritative Korean Central News Agency, the North Korean spokesperson said its caller trial posed nary contiguous menace to neighboring countries and that determination was nary request for Washington to agonize implicit a limb that doesn’t specifically people the United States.

The spokesperson said Pyongyang is “truly concerned” implicit what it sees arsenic an “abnormal” absorption by the United States implicit a rightful workout of its rights to defence and described Washington’s efforts to acceptable up the U.N. Security Council gathering arsenic a “provocative move.”

“When doing the caller test-firing, we did not person the U.S. successful caput nor aimed astatine it, but it is the enactment which had already been planned purely for the defence of the country,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson noted that the United States already possesses submarine-launched ballistic rocket systems and said it was exposing its treble standards by criticizing the North for pursuing the aforesaid weaponry. That lone raises the North’s suspicions astir the sincerity of the Biden administration’s statements that it harbors nary hostility toward the North, the spokesperson said.

Ending a months-long lull successful September, North Korea has been ramping up its weapons tests portion making conditional bid offers to Seoul, reviving a signifier of pressuring South Korea to effort to get what it wants from the United States.

Nuclear negotiations betwixt Washington and Pyongyang person stalled for much than 2 years implicit disagreements successful exchanging the merchandise of crippling U.S.-led sanctions against North Korea and the North’s denuclearization steps.

Since his fallout with the Trump administration, North Korean person Kim Jong Un has vowed to fortify his atomic deterrent successful look of what helium described arsenic U.S. unit and threats.

His authorities has truthful acold rejected the Biden administration’s open-ended connection to resume talks, saying that Washington indispensable wantonness its “hostile policy,” a word North Korea chiefly refers to sanctions and U.S.-South Korea associated subject exercises.

North Korea has been pushing hard for years to get the quality to occurrence nuclear-armed missiles from submarines. The submarine missiles are the adjacent cardinal portion successful an arsenal that includes a assortment of weapons, including ones with the imaginable scope to scope American soil.

Still, experts accidental it would instrumentality years, ample amounts of resources, and large technological improvements for the heavy sanctioned federation to physique astatine slightest respective submarines that could question softly successful seas and reliably execute strikes.

Biden’s peculiar envoy for North Korea, Sung Kim, is scheduled to conscionable with U.S. allies successful Seoul implicit the play to sermon prospects of reviving talks with North Korea.

By Kim Tong-Hyung