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North Korea Says It Will Test ICBM Whenever And Wherever It Wants

KCNA/via Reuters

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Ryan Pickrell China/Asia Pacific Reporter
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Pyongyang announced that it can test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) whenever and wherever Kim Jong-un desires.

“The ICBM will be launched anytime and anywhere,” the Korean Central News Agency (KNCA) said Sunday, quoting an unidentified foreign ministry spokesperson.

“We have reached the final stage of preparations to test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile,” Kim said last week in his New Year’s address, adding that “research and development of cutting edge arms equipment is actively progressing.”

Pyongyang “has set the goal of developing miniaturized nuclear weapons that can fit atop a missile capable of reaching the U.S. by the end of 2017,” former North Korean diplomat Thae Yong-ho told Yonhap News Agency Sunday.

“Whether North Korea test-fires an ICBM this year … will depend on Seoul and Washington’s response to this issue,” he added.

President-elect Donald Trump said “it won’t happen.”

North Korea blames the U.S. for its militarization and arms development projects.

“The U.S. is wholly to blame for pushing the DPRK to have developed ICBM as it has desperately resorted to anachronistic policy hostile toward the DPRK for decades to encroach upon its sovereignty and vital rights,” KCNA revealed, quoting the foreign ministry.

Kim made similar comments in his New Year’s address.

“Unless the U.S. and its vassal forces stop nuclear threat and blackmail and unless they stop the war exercises which they stage right at our noses under the pretext of annual exercises, the DPRK would keep increasing the military capabilities for self-defense and preemptive striking capacity with nuclear force as a pivot.”

While North Korea may be ready to test-fire an ICBM, experts believe it will take years for the North to develop a reliable weapon.

The Department of State said Tuesday that it does not believe North Korea currently has the ability, despite its claims, to arm a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead.

“We do not believe that at this point in time [Kim] has the capability to tip one of these with a nuclear warhead … but we do know that he continues to want to have those capabilities and the programs continue to march in that direction,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

North Korea conducted an unprecedented number of ballistic missile tests last year and made great strides in “qualitative” missile development.

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