North Korea, endowed with nuclear weapons, intends to have “the most powerful strategic force in the world”, affirmed its leader Kim Jong Un on the occasion of a ceremony celebrating the launch of a new intercontinental missile, at the during which his young daughter appeared in public for the second time.
Kim Jong Un rewarded with a massive series of promotions the military and scientists involved in the development of the new Hwasong-17, dubbed the “monster missile” by military analysts, capable of reaching the continental United States. This intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was tested on November 18, falling in waters off Japan.
“Build the strongest army in the world”
The Hwasong-17 is “the strongest strategic weapon in the world” and constitutes “a magnificent leap forward in the development of technology to mount nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles”, the leader enthused, quoted Sunday by the official North Korean agency KCNA. The scientists, soldiers and managers of this program have contributed to the “goal of building the strongest army in the world”, he said again.
The leader stressed in his order rewarding the participants in the armament program that the purpose of developing a nuclear force was to “reliably protect the dignity and sovereignty of the state and the people”. It is “the greatest and most important revolutionary cause, and its ultimate goal is to possess the most powerful strategic force in the world, the absolute force unprecedented in the century”, he proclaimed.
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Hong Min of the Korea Institute for National Unification said Pyongyang’s promotion of the Hwasong-17 test-firing was aimed at bolstering its status as a nuclear power. “While the (launch of) Hwasong-15 in 2017 was intended to become a nation capable of threatening US territory with atomic weapons, the latest missile focuses on the goal of becoming the most powerful state with ICBM,” he said.
“Protector of the future generation”
The official Rodong Simun daily published, also on Sunday, more than a dozen photos showing Kim Jong Un posing in the company of hundreds of civilians and soldiers during the ceremony, accompanied by “his beloved daughter”. The existence of the latter was first revealed last week, when North Korean media published photos of her assisting with her father, hand in hand, at the launch of the Hwasong-17.
Photos from Sunday show the teenager, believed to be Kim Jong Un’s second child and named Ju Ae, dressed in a black coat, arm in arm with her father. Some of the images show the father and daughter posing together in front of the missile in the company of military personnel in uniform.
For Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, the presence of Kim Jong Un’s daughter was intended to portray the Hwasong-17 as “the protector of the future generation”. “It looks like he will continue to parade his daughter on various occasions and use her as an instrument for propaganda,” he added.
In addition to promotions for participants in the weapons program, the regime bestowed the distinction of “Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” (DPRK, the official name of North Korea) to the vehicle that launched the missile on 18 November, KCNA added in another dispatch. The launch “clearly proved to the world that the DPRK is a full-fledged nuclear power,” the official agency said.