North Korea: Kim Jong Un and daughter supervise ICBM launch

Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, personally oversaw the most potent intercontinental ballistic missile's recent test-firing along with his daughter, state media photographs from Friday (March 17)showed.

The launch that took place on Thursday, Pyongyang's second ICBM test this year, used a Hwasong-17 missile, according to the official Korean Central News Agency, which added that it was fired in reaction to "frantic" joint military exercises between the US and South Korea.

Images released in the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed Kim watching the black-and-white Hwasong-17, known to experts as a "monster missile," take off into the sky.

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Several other pictures showed him watching the launch with his daughter—whom state media never named but who South Korean intelligence recognised as his second child Ju Ae.

KCNA said the launch "confirmed the war readiness of the ICBM unit", adding that it "had no negative impact on the security" of neighbouring countries.

ALSO READ |North Korea claims ICBM test-fired on Thursday: KCNA

Previously, South Korea claimed that the missile was launched on a lofted trajectory, or upward rather than outward, as is generally done to avoid overflying other nations.

North Korea declared itself to be an "irreversible" nuclear state last year, and Kim recently called for an "exponential" rise in the development of weapons, including tactical nukes.

Kim, who supervised the launch on Thursday, is quoted as saying that North Korea would"react to nuclear weapons with nukes" and called for "irreversibly bolstering up the nuclear war deterrent", according to KCNA.

According to KCNA, he also emphasised the nation's "rapid response posture... to cope with any armed conflict and war".

The ICBM danger

The Hwasong-17 ICBM may theoretically reach the United States' continental territory, and with this most recent launch, North Korea is attempting to highlight the sophistication of its arsenal, experts said.

Cheong Seong-chang, a senior scholar at the Sejong Institute, told AFP that Pyongyang appeared to be attempting to prove that it could reach whatever target the government desired with its ICBM through the use of photographs of the Earth.

He predicted that the next phase by North Korea will attempt to launch the missile "at a normal angle," demonstrating that it can survive reentry into the atmosphere.

The launch on Thursday came as Tokyo and Seoul pushed to repair their long-frozen relations to offset an increasingly aggressive North Korea.

(With inputs from agencies)

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