In a New Year's speech on January 1, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said the country was in its "final stage" of test-firing an ICBM that could reach the USA mainland.
North Korea rolled out intercontinental ballistic missiles and other military hardware at a massive parade this afternoon to celebrate the birthday of the country's late founder, as third-generation leader Kim Jong Un looked on in delight. That, however, did not stop a North Korean army official from warning the United States that any provocation would be met with retaliation.
Choe Ryong Hae said President Donald Trump was guilty of "creating a war situation" on the Korean Peninsula by dispatching USA forces to the region. Outside analysts consider Choe to be North Korea's number two official.
"We will respond to an all-out war with an all-out war and a nuclear war with our style of a nuclear attack", said Choe, widely seen by analysts as North Korea's No. 2 official.
The parade comes amid rising tensions between North Korea and the rest of the world, after a week-long series of spats directed toward the U.S., and a looming possibility of the nation's sixth nuclear test.
Several UK newspapers reported that the U.S. and North Korea were on the "brink of war".
North Korea showed two new kinds of ICBM enclosed in canister launchers mounted on the back of trucks, suggesting Pyongyang was working towards a "new concept" of ICBM, said Melissa Hanham, a senior research associate at the US-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California.
USA retaliatory strikes against Syria over a chemical weapons attack on civilians, coupled with Trump dispatching what he called an "armada" of ships to the region in a show of force, touched off fears in South Korea that the United States was preparing for military action against the North. There's also anger in Pyongyang over the annual spring military exercises that the US holds with South Korea.
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The United States has warned that a policy of "strategic patience" with North Korea is over.
China, North Korea's sole major ally and neighbour, which nevertheless opposes its weapons programme, on Friday again called for talks to defuse the crisis.
A series of what appeared to be KN-08 missiles were among the weaponry rolled out on trucks.
If the Korean missiles actually work, and have a similar range to the Chinese missile, they could hit the continental US. DPRK on Saturday showcased its military muscles by parading all of its most advanced ballistic and tactic missiles, including a submarine-launched ballistic missile which could strike targets 1,000 kilometers away. The missiles use solid fuel, making them easier to load and harder to detect than liquid fuel rockets.
Kim Jong Un, a 30-something leader who took power in late 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, emphasizes nuclear weapons as the foundation of his national defense strategy.
In his annual New Year's address, Kim said North Korea's preparations for an ICBM launch had "reached the final stage". Analysts say commercial satellite images from recent weeks indicate increased activity around North Korea's nuclear test site. The country conducted two nuclear tests past year.
The festivities took place amid concerns that North Korea is possibly preparing for its sixth nuclear test or a significant rocket launch, such as its first flight test of an ICBM.
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