![\"Kim](\"https:\/\/c.ndtvimg.com\/2023-03\/tsrokjf_kim-jong-un-daughter_625x300_17_March_23.jpg\"\/ "\\"Kim")
<\/div>\nHe watched the launch with his daughter — identified as his second child Ju Ae.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Seoul: <\/b><\/p>\n
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accompanied by his daughter, personally oversaw the recent test-firing of the country’s most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile, state media images showed Friday.<\/p>\n
The launch on Thursday — Pyongyang’s second ICBM test this year — involved a Hwasong-17 missile, the official Korean Central News Agency reported, adding that it was fired in response to “frantic” US-South Korea joint military drills.<\/p>\n
Photographs in the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed Kim watching the black-and-white Hwasong-17 — dubbed a “monster missile” by analysts — blast off into the sky.<\/p>\n
Some of the images showed him watching the launch with his daughter — never named by state media but identified as his second child Ju Ae by South Korean intelligence.<\/p>\n
State media also released images showing the Earth from space, purportedly taken by a camera mounted on the ICBM.<\/p>\n
KCNA said the launch “confirmed the war readiness of the ICBM unit”, adding that it “had no negative impact on the security” of neighbouring countries.<\/p>\n
South Korea had previously said the missile was fired on a lofted trajectory — up instead of out, typically done to avoid overflying neighbouring countries.<\/p>\n
Last year, North Korea declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power, and Kim recently called for an “exponential” increase in weapons production, including tactical nukes.<\/p>\n
Overseeing the Thursday launch, Kim said North Korea would “react to nuclear weapons with nukes” and called for “irreversibly bolstering up the nuclear war deterrent”, according to KCNA.<\/p>\n
He also highlighted the country’s “rapid response posture… to cope with any armed conflict and war”, KCNA said.<\/p>\n
ICBM threat<\/strong><\/p>\n In theory, the Hwasong-17 ICBM can reach the continental United States, and with this latest launch, North Korea is trying to emphasise the advanced level of its weaponry, analysts said.<\/p>\n “With the photos of the Earth, Pyongyang seems to be trying to show that it can accurately hit any target the regime wants with its ICBM,” Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute, told AFP.<\/p>\n The next step will likely be North Korea firing the missile “at a normal angle”, he said, which would demonstrate it can survive reentry into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n The Thursday launch — Pyongyang’s third show of force this week — came as Tokyo and Seoul sought to thaw long-frozen ties to counter an increasingly aggressive North Korea.<\/p>\n South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol flew to Japan Thursday to meet Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the first such summit in 12 years.<\/p>\n North Korea fired two cruise missiles from a submarine on Sunday, followed by two short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday, as South Korea and the United States staged major military drills.<\/p>\n The allies have ramped up defence cooperation in the face of growing military and nuclear threats from North Korea, which has conducted a series of increasingly provocative banned weapons tests in recent months.<\/p>\n “The fact (that) North Korea has almost normalised ICBM tests over the last year is a concern,” Joseph Dempsey, a researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told AFP.<\/p>\n Soo Kim, a former CIA Korea analyst, said that Kim’s regime “has essentially desensitised the international community to its weapons tests,” she told AFP.<\/p>\n “We’ve reached a point where an ICBM test draws no greater attention than a short-range missile test,” she said.<\/p>\n “We’ll continue to see North Korea advancing and expanding its suite of weapons capabilities in the days to come.”<\/p>\n (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n