North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country’s launch this week of an intercontinental ballistic missile sends a warning that Pyongyang would respond with a nuclear attack if provoked by its enemies with nuclear weapons.
The launch speaks to North Korea’s doctrine that it will “not hesitate to launch a nuclear attack if enemies provoke us with nuclear weapons,” Kim told a missile unit, according to a report from the state’s official Korean Central News Agency on Thursday.
Pyongyang has made similar threats on a regular basis, warning in October after the U.S. deployed an aircraft carrier group to South Korea that it was ready to use nuclear weapons if it believed an attack was imminent.
North Korea fired the Hwasong-18 that splashed down west of Japan’s main northern island of Hokkaido on Monday in its fifth ICBM test this year. The class of missile is considered the most powerful in its arsenal and designed to deliver a nuclear warhead to the U.S. mainland.
The launches coincided with talks between the U.S. and South Korea on deepening cooperation in deterring Kim from using nuclear weapons. In November, North Korea launched a satellite into orbit, moving Kim closer to his key policy goal of deploying an array of reconnaissance probes to keep an eye on U.S. forces in the region.
The U.S., Japan and South Korea strongly condemned North Korea’s recent ballistic missile launches, including the ICBM test, according to a joint statement released by the U.S. Department of State. They also welcomed the full activation of a real-time missile-warning mechanism covering North Korea missiles and a trilateral exercise plan.
On Wednesday, U.S. strategic bombers joined an aerial exercise with South Korea and Japan around the peninsula in a show of force over North Korea’s ICBM launch. Fighter jets from South Korea and Japan escorted two B-1B bombers, according to the defense ministry in Seoul.
Kim didn’t say what would amount to an enemy provocation. In a separate statement on Thursday, Kim Yo Jong, the leader’s sister, condemned a U.N. Security Council meeting on North Korea and accused the U.S. of raising regional tensions by targeting Pyongyang with military drills.
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