North Korea Claims Launching Drill of Hwasong-17 ICBM

Seoul, March 17 (Jiji Press)--North Korea successfully conducted a launching drill of a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported on Friday.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un inspected the missile firing, the news agency said.

The ICBM, launched from Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang, reached a maximum altitude of 6,045 kilometers and flew a distance of roughly 1,000 kilometers before landing on a preset area in the Sea of Japan, according to the report.

The KCNA criticized the ongoing joint military exercise by the United States and South Korea as being provocative and aggressive. It claimed that the latest ICBM launch served as an occasion to give a stronger warning to North Korea's enemies that are intentionally escalating tensions in the Korean Peninsula.

According to the report, Kim said North Korea will continue to make the United States and South Korea find themselves being reckless, warning that their expanded military moves will bring an irreversible, grave threat to them.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]