North Korea today called what US President Joe Biden said in response to its recent missile launch a “provocation”, assuring that it has the right to self-defense and warns Washington of possible consequences if these persist.
“Such comments by the US president are a violation of our state’s right to self-defense and a provocation,” Marshal Ri Pyong-chol, one of the main figures of the regime, said in a statement published by the KCNA news agency.
After the test, Biden warned that “there will be an answer if they choose an escalation”, to which Ri responded today saying that “if the US continues with its unconscious comments without thinking about the consequences, it could face something that is not good”.
Ri, one of the five members of the presidium of the North Korean politburo, assured that Biden’s words reveal his “deep hostility towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (official name of the country)”, and accuses his new government of labeling the Asian country of “threat.”
“It is gangster logic that the US is allowed to send strategic nuclear assets to the peninsula and launch intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) whenever it wants but that it is not permissible for the DPRK, its belligerent rival, to test even a tactical weapon ( short-range),” added the North Korean marshal.
“I think the new US administration has obviously gotten off to a bad start,” he said.
Thursday’s was the second North Korean missile test in less than a week and comes at a time marked by a review of Washington’s new strategy to deal with Pyongyang, which has required a return to the denuclearization dialogue without preconditions.
The regime on Thursday tested what appears to be a new version of the KN-23 (which is itself a local version of the Russian Iskander) capable of carrying a 2.5-ton warhead.
The KN-23 is a hypersonic missile with a sophisticated guidance system that allows it to trace non-completely parabolic trajectories, which makes it difficult to intercept and – despite its short range – makes it a serious threat to nearby countries such as South Korea. South or Japan.
Last January, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned that he would start testing new weapons if the Biden government did not propose new formulas to return to the negotiating table.