North Korean unveils new anti-air weapon system

Seoul

Over the past month the young leader has supervised several military drills, including the test-firings of medium ballistic missiles, a multiple rocket system and long-range artillery, in response to Seoul-Washington joint army drills south of the border.

The latest launch came as a two-day nuclear security summit was being hosted by Barack Obama in Washington, at which North Korea was the focus of the US president’s talks with the leaders of China, South Korea and Japan. Pyongyang’s official KCNA news agency said on Saturday that Kim oversaw the launch of a new anti air guided weapon system to gauge its capability.

“Under his observation, AA rockets were fired to accurately hit mock enemy aerial targets,” it said.

Kim “expressed great satisfaction over the successful test”, calling it another striking demonstration of the rapidly growing defence capability of the country, KCNA added.

South Korea’s Defence Ministry claimed that North Korea fired an anti-air missile around 12.45 pm on Friday from the eastern city of Sondok. United States President Barack Obama spoke on Thursday of the need to “vigilantly enforce strong UN security measures” imposed on North Korea after its fourth nuclear test in January and a subsequent longrange rocket launch.

Pyongyang’s state media labelled the summit a “nonsensical” effort to find fault with the North Korea’s “legitimate access to nuclear weapons.” Existing UN sanctions ban North Korea from conducting any ballistic missile test, although shortrange launches tend to go unpunished.