North Korea’s Kim stresses need to bolster nuclear arms: media

PanARMENIAN.Net - North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un called on his military to continue building up Pyongyang's nuclear force after issuing orders for the latest test-firing of ballistic missiles, the North's state media said Tuesday, September 6, according to AFP.

North Korea test-fired three missiles into the sea Monday, Seoul said, in a new show of force as world leaders met for the G20 summit in China.

"He stressed the need to continue making miraculous achievements in bolstering up the nuclear force one after another in this historic year," the official KCNA news agency said.

Kim was guiding a fire drill of his military aimed at checking the "capabilities of the units" and the accuracy of the "improved ballistic rockets deployed for action," it added.

Describing the combat performance of the rockets as "perfect", KCNA said Kim expressed "great satisfaction over the successful successive firing drill of ballistic rockets".

South Korea's defense ministry said the missiles were speculated to be Rodong missiles with a range of 1,000 kilometres, and that they were fired without navigational warning to Japan, AFP says.

"North Korea's ballistic missile launch is a direct violation of UN Security Council resolutions, aimed at showing off its nuclear and missile capabilities during the G20 summit," a ministry spokesman said in a statement.

The defense ministry in Tokyo said the three missiles were estimated to have fallen into Japan's maritime Exclusive Economic Zone.