ISLAMABAD
\nNorth Korea has launched its largest Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), fired during a drill to demonstrate a \u201ctough response posture\u201d to ongoing US-South Korea military drills, state media reported.
\nPhotos released on Friday by the country\u2019s government media showed Kim Jong-un watching Thursday\u2019s launch with his daughter and included pictures from space apparently shot by a camera mounted on the missile.
\nNorth Korea fired the ICBM into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan, hours before South Korea\u2019s president flew to Tokyo for a summit that discussed ways to counter the nuclear-armed North.
\n\u201cThe launching drill of the strategic weapon serves as an occasion to give a stronger warning to the enemies intentionally escalating the tension in the Korean peninsula while persistently resorting to irresponsible and reckless military threats,\u201d state news agency KCNA said. The North\u2019s ballistic missiles are banned under United Nations Security Council resolutions and the launch drew condemnation from governments in Seoul, Washington and Tokyo.
\nSouth Korean and American forces began 11 days of joint drills, dubbed \u201cFreedom Shield 23,\u201d on Monday, held on a scale not seen since 2017 to counter the North\u2019s growing threats.
\nKim accused the United States and South Korea of increasing tensions with the military drills.
\nHe \u201cstressed the need to strike fear into the enemies, really deter war and reliably guarantee the peaceful life of our people and their struggle for socialist construction by irreversibly bolstering up the nuclear war deterrent,\u201d KCNA reported.
\nChina, which has a defence pact with North Korea, also blamed the United States for the current tensions, saying they are caused by Washington\u2019s efforts to increase pressure on Pyongyang.
\nThe Hwasong-17 is North Korea\u2019s biggest missile yet and is the largest road-mobile, liquid-fuelled ICBM in the world.
\nIt is believed to have the range to potentially deliver a nuclear warhead to targets anywhere in the United States.
\nThe missile was launched from Pyongyang\u2019s airport and KCNA said it travelled up to a maximum altitude of 6,045 km and flew a distance of 1,000 km for just over 69 minutes, before falling into the open sea.
\nThe launch did not pose a safety threat to any neighbouring countries, the report said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD North Korea has launched its largest Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), fired during a drill to demonstrate a \u201ctough response posture\u201d to ongoing US-South Korea military drills, state media reported. Photos released on Friday by the country\u2019s government media showed Kim Jong-un watching Thursday\u2019s launch with his daughter and included pictures from space apparently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-320207","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n