Kim Jong Un launches ‘monster ICBM’ while holding daughter’s hand

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared at the launch site of Hwasong-17, a monster intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) while holding his daughter’s hand on Friday, showing off his confidence in the stability of the country’s nuclear power. “This seems to reinforce the nuke program is here to stay. The optics of handing down a legacy,” said the director of 38 North, the media company specializing in North Korea, Jenny Town, via her Twitter account.

North Korea also forewarned its plan for nuclear weapon development and reinforcement on Sunday, saying that it will increase the number of its nuclear weapons for the next generations. The North’s nuclear development is accelerating amid the new cold era structure of South Korea, the U.S., and Japan versus North Korea, China, and Russia.

“The weight of the words that we are the nation that has the strongest ICBMs on the planet is indeed heavy,” North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun wrote in the first-page article titled “a solemn declaration of the Workers' Party of Korea” on Sunday. “Those overwhelming words prove that the right to strike nuclear attacks first is not only limited to the U.S. and that we hold the real force against the U.S.’s nuclear supremacy.” This reconfirm‎s the country’s willingness to strike nuclear attacks first, if necessary after it formalized its preemptive use of nuclear weapons through the legalization of policies on nuclear power in September. “We will continue to quantitatively reinforce nuclear weapons, which are the powerful sword of state for peacekeeping,” wrote the newspaper, expressing the country’s determination to strengthen its nuclear weapons.

“We need to clearly show the enemies our party and government’s extreme determination for revenge against their madness of training for wars of aggression,” said Kim on the launch site. “We also need to show the U.S., South Korea, and their followers that military response against us will lead to self-destruction,” he added. “If the enemies continue to pose threats using nuclear weapons, our party and the government will firmly face them with nuclear weapons – an eye for an eye.”

On Saturday, two B-1Bs, the U.S.’s strategic bombers, conducted a joint ROK-U.S. air training over the South Korean airspace, along with the South Korean Air Force’s four F-35As, stealth aircraft, and the U.S. Air Force’s four F-16, combat planes.


journari@donga.com