North Korea says ICBM launch was response to rivals' drills
The HinduNorth Korea said March 17 that its latest intercontinental ballistic missile launch was intended to send a “stronger warning” over combined U.S. military exercises with South Korea, blaming those for creating a “most unstable security environment” in the region. Thursday’s launch from North Korea’s capital area came hours before South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol traveled to Tokyo for a summit with Japanese Prime Minster Fumio Kishida. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said leader Kim Jong Un supervised the test-firing of the Hwasong-17 ICBM from Pyongyang’s international airport and stressed the need to “strike fear into the enemies” over what it called the “open hostility” shown to the North by the large-scale exercises. Mr. Kim said it's crucial for North Korea's nuclear missile forces to maintain readiness to counterattack rivals with “overwhelming offensive measures anytime” and make them realize their persistent and expanded military actions will “bring an irreversible, grave threat to them," KCNA said. “The ever-escalating threat of North Korea’s nuclear missile program poses a huge threat to peace and stability not only in East Asia but also to the international community,” Mr. Yoon said.