South Korea's military on Monday condemned the North's latest missile launch, which Pyongyang claimed was a new solid-fuel hypersonic missile with intermediate range.
The latest development launch came days after Kim Jong-un-led military fired a barrage of artillery shells near the tense sea border with South Korea, prompting Seoul to conduct similar firing exercises in the same area.
The move is being touted as a sign of deepening cooperation between Russia and North Korea. North Korea had shut its borders in 2020 amid the global COVID-19 lockdown, and observers had predicted that the first post-pandemic tourists would come from China.
US National Security Council said that recently declassified intelligence found that Russia had access to North Korean ballistic missile launchers and several ballistic missiles. The US is also concerned that Russia’s negotiations to acquire close-range ballistic missiles from Iran are advancing.
Kim said that he would launch three more military spy satellites, produce more nuclear materials and develop attack drones against an unprecedented US-led confrontation. He called South Korea a "hemiplegic malformation and colonial subordinate state” whose society is “tainted by Yankee culture”.
Kim has been focused on modernizing his nuclear and missile arsenals since his high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with then-President Donald Trump broke down in 2019 due to wrangling over international sanctions on the North.
Speaking on the policy directions for the new year at a key meeting of the country's ruling party on Wednesday, Kim also said Pyongyang would expand strategic cooperation with "anti-imperialist independent" countries.
Kim said the launch demonstrated the evolution of the North's nuclear doctrine and strategy “not to hesitate even with a nuclear attack when the enemy provokes it with nukes".
Kim stressed the need to “never overlook all the reckless and irresponsible military threats of the enemies … and to strongly counter them with more offensive actions".
During an event dedicated to mothers, Kim Jong Un called for efforts to tackle North Korea's falling birth rates, describing the challenge as "everyone's housekeeping duty".
North Korea says it has sovereign, legitimate rights to launch spy satellites to cope with what it calls intensifying US-led threats. But UN Security Council resolutions still prohibit any satellite liftoff by North Korea, viewing them as covers for testing its long-range missile technology.
The North's space agency said that its new “Chollima-1” carrier rocket accurately placed the Malligyong-1 satellite into orbit on Tuesday night, about 12 minutes after liftoff from the country's main launch centre.
Notably, North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong Un is eager to operate spy satellites to deal with what it calls escalating US-led military threats. But its two previous attempts to place a spy satellite into orbit earlier this year ended in failure due to technical issues.
The 2018 inter-Korean military agreements required both Koreas to halt aerial surveillance activities and live-firing drills across the border. Seoul has said that North Korea has violated the agreement several times by flying drones in South Korean territory.
The drills, which started on Wednesday, come amid heightened tensions in South Korea over the devastating and unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. The US and South Korea have expanded their military exercises in the wake of North Korea's burgeoning nuclear programme.
King illegally crossed over from South to North Korea in July and was said to have attempted to escape "inhumane treatment" in the US Army. He was released and returned to the United States in September after help from Sweden and surprisingly China.
A giant fish tank has been built in Kim Jong Un's residence in Ryongsong with Brazil-imported piranhas. According to the report, the North Korean leader took inspiration from a 1977 James Bond film.
After his visit to Russia last month where he met Putin, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for an exponential increase in the production of nuclear weapons. North Korea has been expanding its nuclear arsenal in the wake of growing deployment of US assets to its arch-nemesis South Korea.
Kim's motive to bolster efforts to modernise North Korean weaponry has been seen as a response to growing military cooperation between the US and South Korea. Washington and Seoul have maintained that these drills are defensive in nature.
US officials said they did not know exactly why North Korea decided to expel Travis King, but suspected Pyongyang determined that as a low-ranking serviceman, he had no real value in terms of either leverage or information.
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