North Korea vows ‘toughest’ response to US after testing missile system

North Korea said on Sunday it tested a cruise missile system, its third known weapons display this year.

The nation vowed “the toughest” response to what it called the escalation of US-South Korean military drills that target the North.

The moves suggested North Korea will likely maintain its run of weapons tests and its confrontational stance against the US for now, even though President Donald Trump said he intends to reach out to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Mr Kim observed the test of sea-to-surface strategic cruise-guided weapons on Saturday.

The term “strategic” implies the missiles are nuclear-capable. KCNA said the missiles hit their targets after travelling 932-mile-long elliptical and figure-eight-shaped flight patterns, but that could not be independently verified.

KCNA cited Mr Kim as saying that North Korea’s war deterrence capabilities “are being perfected more thoroughly” and affirming that his country will make “strenuous efforts” to defend stability “on the basis of more powerfully developed military muscle”.

In a separate statement carried by KCNA on Sunday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry criticised the US for committing “serious military provocations aiming at” North Korea with a series of military exercises with South Korea this month.

“The reality stresses that the DPRK should counter the US with the toughest counteraction from A to Z as long as it refuses the sovereignty and security interests of the DPRK and this is the best option for dealing with the US,” the Foreign Ministry statement said.

DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the abbreviation of its formal name.

The Foreign Ministry warning was in line with Mr Kim’s vows to implement the “toughest” anti-US policy during a year-end political meeting.

North Korea views US military training with South Korea as invasion rehearsals though Washington and Seoul have repeatedly said their drills are defensive in nature.

In recent years, the US and South Korea have expanded their military exercises in response to North Korea’s advancing nuclear program.

The start of Mr Trump’s second term raises prospects for the revival of diplomacy between the US and North Korea, as Mr Trump met Mr Kim three times during his first term.

The Trump-Kim diplomacy in 2018-19 fell apart due to wrangling over US-led economic sanctions on North Korea.

During a Fox News interview broadcast on Thursday, Mr Trump called Mr Kim “a smart guy” and “not a religious zealot”.

Asked whether he would reach out to Mr Kim again,  Mr Trump replied: “I will, yeah.”

On Monday, Mr Trump called North Korea “a nuclear power” as he spoke of his personal ties with Mr Kim during a news conference at the Oval Office after his inauguration.

Washington, Seoul and their partners have long shunned describing North Korea as a nuclear state because that could be seen as accepting its pursuit of nuclear weapons in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

Many experts say Mr Kim likely thinks he has greater bargaining power than in his earlier round of diplomacy with Mr Trump because of his country’s enlarged nuclear arsenal and deepening military ties with Russia.

In South Korea, many worry that Mr Trump might scale back military drills with the Asian US ally and abandon the goal of the complete denuclearisation of North Korea and focus on eliminating its long-range missile programme, which poses a direct threat to the US while leaving its nuclear attack capabilities against South Korea intact.

After his first summit with Mr Kim in 2018,  Mr Trump baffled many in South Korea by unilaterally announcing the suspension of major summertime military drills, calling them “very provocative” and “tremendously expensive”.

North Korea has not commented on Mr Trump’s latest overture.

Sunday’s cruise missile tests were the North’s first known weapons launches since Mr Trump’s inauguration.