North Korean Official In Moscow: US & S.Korea Plotting Nuclear Strike

There’s been more fallout in the wake of Thursday’s North Korean test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), widely described as registering the country’s longest ever flight time for a ballistic missile.

First, South Korea has slapped new sanctions on over a dozen North Korean individuals and entities. Seoul has roundly condemned the launch. The US is also likely to ramp up its sanctions even further. 

But to be expected, Kim Jong Un has hit back. He was cited in state KCNA as saying: “The new-type ICBM proved before the world that the hegemonic position we have secured in the development and manufacture of nuclear delivery means of the same kind is absolutely irreversible.”

Pyongyang officials have since identified the massive rocket, which they dub “the world’s strongest strategic missile,” as a new Hwasong-19 ICBM. Given that nuclear warhead-capable ICBMs can reach several thousands of miles away, such a missile would have the capability of hitting the continental United States. And the timing has not been lost on anyone, as it was a mere days before the US presidential election.

“It can be stored and moved anywhere, allowing for excellent mobility, stealth and survivability,” said Kim of the rocket. State media has subsequently released carefully edited, high quality footage of the ‘perfected’ missile launch, which has been widely circulating on Friday:

VIDEO: North Korean state media published footage of the launch of a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) model called the “Hwasong-19” on Thursday.

Read more here: https://t.co/kA8m36NARX pic.twitter.com/CXXlBJX7O5

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) November 1, 2024

“The increased length likely means a greater fuel capacity, which directly affects thrust and potentially increases range,” Kim added.

And new statements from North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui suggest tensions with the West are higher than ever. She said from Moscow, where she is meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, that her country is coming under nuclear threat by the US and South Korea.

She “accused the United States and South Korea of plotting a nuclear strike against her country,” Reuters reports Friday. “She did not provide evidence to back her assertion, but spoke of regular consultations between Washington and Seoul at which she alleged such plotting took place.”

The top diplomat also pledged that North Korea will not stop helping Russia until it achieves ‘victory’ on the battlefield in Ukraine.

Pyongyang and Moscow have over the past year been deepening their defense ties, having inked a new pact this past summer, and the Kremlin has cited this as the legal basis for North Korean troops being hosted in Russia.