Alwaght- North Korea has hailed it missile launches and an H-bomb in 2017 and promised more tests in 2018 unless the US makes a U-turn.
North Korea regards 2017 as having been a good year judging by the bombastic tone of its annual report, state-run Korean Central News Agency reported in an article published on Saturday.
The article, headlined ‘No Force Can Prevail over Independence and Justice,’ hailed the 2017 ballistic and nuclear missile tests, including the tests of Pukguksong-2 intermediate-range ballistic missile and test-firing of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) Hwasong-14 and Hwasong-15, which are “capable of striking the heart of the US”
More may come next year if Washington keeps holding war games in the region, Pyongyang warned. North Korea promised to bolster “the capabilities for self-defense and preemptive attack with the nuclear force as the pivot as long as the U.S. and its vassal forces persist in nuclear threat and blackmail and war drills under the mask of annual ones at the doorstep of the DPRK.”
North Korea’s moves this year were met with new rounds of UN Security Council sanctions, including sanctions targeting its key revenue sources – coal, iron, and textile exports. Washington also introduced several rounds of unilateral punitive measures against the communist state, triggering a harsh reaction from North Korea, calling the measures “criminal conduct.”
The tensions on the Korean Peninsula have worsened after increased provocations by the US which includes military drills and deployment of warships and submarines in the region.
Pyongyang insists that developing its military defenses including nuclear weapons is important to counter incessant provocations by the US including a possible nuclear aggression.
