SEOUL: North Korea\u2019s reclusive leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the Sunday test-firing of hypersonic missiles in a drill made necessary by \u201cthe recent geopolitical crisis,\u201d state media quoted him as saying.<\/p>\n
The report Monday by Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) confirmed and added details about North Korea\u2019s first missile launch of 2026, including that it employed a \u201ccutting-edge\u201d new weapon system using hypersonic missiles first tested in October.<\/p>\n
Kim was not present for that launch, reports at the time said.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, as he applauded the drill, the North Korean leader said that \u201cimportant achievements have been recently made in putting our nuclear forces on a practical basis and preparing them for an actual war.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy it is necessary is exemplified by the recent geopolitical crisis and complicated international events,\u201d KCNA quoted him as saying.<\/p>\n
North Korea on Sunday denounced the US capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as a \u201cserious encroachment of sovereignty,\u201d state media said.<\/p>\n
The raid represents a nightmare scenario for North Korea\u2019s leadership, which has long accused Washington of seeking to remove it from power.<\/p>\n
Pyongyang has for decades justified its nuclear and missile programs as a deterrent against alleged regime change efforts by Washington.<\/p>\n
South Korea\u2019s military had reported the missile launches into the Sea of Japan on Sunday, saying it had detected \u201cseveral projectiles, presumed to be ballistic missiles\u201d fired from near Pyongyang around 7:50 am Sunday local time.<\/p>\n
KCNA did not specify how many missiles were launched on Sunday but said they \u201chit the targets 1,000 km (620 miles) away\u201d in the Sea of Japan.<\/p>\n
The test-firing came as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung traveled to China for a four-day visit.<\/p>\n
Lee, who is meeting with President Xi Jinping on Monday, is looking to boost economic ties with Seoul\u2019s largest trading partner.<\/p>\n
The South Korean leader also hopes to possibly harness China\u2019s clout over North Korea to support his bid to improve ties with Pyongyang.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEOUL: North Korea\u2019s reclusive leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the Sunday test-firing of hypersonic missiles in a drill made necessary by \u201cthe recent geopolitical crisis,\u201d state media quoted him as saying. The report Monday by Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) confirmed and added details about North Korea\u2019s first missile launch of 2026, including that it …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":91866,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91867,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91850\/revisions\/91867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}