North Korea Claims ‘Successful’ Missile Engine Test
KABUL: (MEP) North Korean has claimed that it successfully tested an engine designed for an inter-continental ballistic missile.
The new type of engine would “guarantee” the ability to launch a nuclear strike on the US mainland, the official KCNA news agency said on Saturday.
“The great success … provided a firm guarantee for mounting another form of nuclear attack upon the US imperialists and other hostile forces,” leader Kim Jong-un was quoted by the KCNA as saying.
As soon as Kim flagged off the test at the Sohae Space Centre “the engine spewed out huge flames with deafening boom”, KCNA said.
According to KCNA, Kim Jong-un said: “Dear Comrade, now we can mount an ever more powerful nuclear warhead on a new intercontinental ballistic rocket and put the den of evil in the United States and all over the world within our strike range.”
It was conducted at the country’s missile station near its west coast where in February it launched a long-range rocket that put an object into space orbit and was also supervised by Kim, it said.
It was the latest in a series of North Korea’s claims of great achievements in both its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
North Korea should “refrain from actions and rhetoric that further destabilise the region and focus instead on taking concrete steps toward fulfilling its commitments and international obligations,” said US State Department spokesman Mark Toner.
