North Korea says ICBM launch was a ‘warning’

North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile this week as a warning in opposition to continued US-South Korean army drills, state media stated Friday.

The missile, launched Thursday, was meant to “give a stronger warning to the enemies deliberately escalating the strain,” in keeping with Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

US-SOUTH KOREA DRILLS DETER NORTH KOREA, PENTAGON CLAIMS HOURS AFTER NORTH KOREA LAUNCHES ICBM

A television display at Yongsan railway station exhibits a information bulletin about North Korea’s long-range ballistic missile launch, March 16, 2023.  (Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket by way of Getty Images)

It was the second ICBM launched by North Korea this 12 months, and was fired simply hours earlier than South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was scheduled to satisfy with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

The aggressive escalation brings consideration to US messaging on the North Korean subject.

USE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS WOULD BE ‘END OF NORTH KOREAN REGIME,’ PENTAGON WARNS

In this photograph supplied by the North Korean authorities, North Korean chief Kim Jong Un, together with his daughter, inspects what it says is an artillery drill at an undisclosed location in North Korea, Thursday, March 9, 2023.  (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service by way of AP)

The Department of Defense claimed Thursday its frequent joint army workouts with South Korea continues to discourage North Korean assaults.

“I believe what’s essential for folks to grasp is, one, deterrence continues to work,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder informed reporters at a each day Department of Defense press briefing.

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People stand close to a tv displaying a information broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile take a look at, at a railway station in Seoul on March 14, 2023. (ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP by way of Getty Images)

“Despite launching missiles into the ocean, North Korea shouldn’t be attacking, nor ought to they, and that the United States, Japan, South Korea and different allies and companions within the area will proceed to work collectively to increase that deterrence and to maintain our international locations protected,” Ryder said.