DPRK launches intercontinental ballistic missile in drill

SEOUL — The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, the official Korean Central News Agency reported on Sunday.

The Hwasongpho-15, fired on a lofted angle, was launched at Pyongyang International Airport and accurately hit a preset area in the eastern open waters on Saturday afternoon. The launch was conducted under an emergency firepower combat standby order given at dawn on Saturday and a written order from Kim Jongun, chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea, the report said.

The news agency reported that the move was designed to verify the weapons system's reliability and demonstrate the combat preparedness of the DPRK nuclear force.

On Sunday, Kim Yo-jong, a senior party official, issued a statement accusing the United States and the Republic of Korea of "openly showing their dangerous greed and attempt to gain the military upper hand and predominant position in the Korean Peninsula".

She said the US and ROK are "destroying the stability of the region" and vowed that the DPRK "will watch every movement of the enemy and take corresponding and very powerful and overwhelming counteraction".

Xinhua