SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea has launched developmental ballistic missiles crafted from submarines and other military hardware in a parade calling on leader Kim Jong Un’s faulty calls to expand their nuclear weapons program. .
State media said Kim held a major ruling party meeting in the parade on Thursday night, in which Kim made maximum efforts to boost his nuclear and missile program, which threatens Asian rivals and the US homeland That he should tell about American enmity.
During the eight-day Workers Party Congress that ended on Tuesday, Kim also revealed plans to revive the nation’s economy amid his nuclear ambitions, epidemic-related border closures and US-led sanctions on natural disasters that end crops. .
The economic failures have left Kim with nothing to show for his ambitious diplomacy with President Donald Trump, more than a disagreement over sanctions relief and the North’s exchange of nuclear phases, and Kim’s own nine-year rule Pushed into the most difficult moment.
Kim’s comments are likely to put pressure on the incoming US government of Joe Baden, who has previously called the North Korean leader a “thug” and accused Trump of sabotaging rather than meaningfully curbing the North’s nuclear capabilities. Kim has not ruled out talks, but said the fate of bilateral relations will depend on whether Washington abandons its hostile policy toward Pyongyang.
Korean Central News Agency released pictures of Kim on Friday wearing a black fur hat and leather trench coat, smiling profusely from a podium and with gestures as thousands of soldiers and civilian spectators took Kim Il Sung Square to their Filled in the name of grandfather and founder of North Korea.
The agency said the audience roared as soldiers roll the nation’s most advanced tactical weapons, including submarine-launched ballistic missiles known as “the world’s most powerful weapon”.
Pictures released by state media show transporting trucks that were ballistic missiles launched by a new submarine larger than those tested in the North East.
The North also showcased a variety of solid-fueled weapons, which were fired from mobile land launchers, possibly expanding the North’s capabilities to attack bases in South Korea and Japan, including the US military base. Huh.
The agency also said that the parade featured other missiles capable of “completely destroying enemies in our (our) territory in a pre-emptive manner.” But it was not immediately clear whether this description is of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
As of Friday afternoon, the North’s state media had not released any pictures from the parade that included the ICBM.
During its last military parade in October, North revealed what its biggest ICBM was. The country’s last long-range missiles demonstrated the potential to reach deep to the US mainland during flight tests in 2017.
North has been developing submarine-launched ballistic missile systems for years. Acquiring an operational system would endanger its rivals and neighbors as missiles fired from submerged ships are difficult to detect in advance.
Nevertheless, Kim Dong-yub, an analyst at Seoul’s Institute of Far Eastern Studies and a former military official who participated in the pre-Korean military talks, said the North’s possible new SLBM could possibly be an engineering mock-up called Any development will be required first. It is ready to be tested and deployed.
The analyst said that Kim Jong Un vowed to develop nuclear-powered submarines capable of firing nuclear-armed ballistic missiles, but the North had “overcome considerable financial and technical difficulties to acquire such systems” Time “.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that it was studying weapons displayed by the North, but did not immediately issue a detailed assessment.
It was not immediately clear whether Kim Jong Un delivered the speech during the parade. North Korean state TV was expected to release footage of the parade later on Friday.
Nuclear power-powered submarines were one of many advanced military assets included on Kim’s wish list during Congress, including long-range ICBMs that could potentially power the US mainland more reliably, new strategic nuclear weapons, and The war could have targeted spy satellites and hypersonic weapons, weapons.
It is not clear whether the answer is fully capable of achieving such systems. The country is believed to have at least dozens of nuclear weapons stored, but external estimates on the exact status of its nuclear and missile programs vary widely.
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