Thousands of men lined the streets of Pyongyang to give scientists and workers behind North Korea’s latest missile test a hero’s welcome.
Pictures from the despotic state showed hundreds of developers wearing military garb and saluting giant statues of late leaders Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il that dominate the centre of the capital.
Others showed residents waving red flags and artificial flowers as they turned out to greet a convoy of buses carrying the workers.
Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the official mouthpiece of the ruling Workers’ Party, praised those responsible for the Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile for showing the world ‘the strength of the powerful self-reliant nuclear state’.
‘People’s enthusiastic welcome for defence science warriors,’ ran a front-page headline in the newspaper, alongside pictures of the developers of what appears to be its longest-range ballistic missile.
The official Korean Central News Agency said: ‘Streets of the capital city of Pyongyang were full of festive atmosphere to greet the scientists of national defence. Hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life and school youth and children were waiting for the merited persons along the streets.’
On Sunday, North Korea test-fired what analysts say was its longest-range rocket yet as it accelerates efforts to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the continental United States.
Pyongyang has long had missiles that can reach targets across the South — the 500 kilometre Scud — and Japan, the 1,000-1,300 kilometre Rodong.
But with an imputed range of 4,500 kilometres the Hwasong-12 puts US bases on the Pacific island of Guam within reach.
Leader Kim Jong-Un oversaw the launch and warned of ‘the worst-ever disaster’ if the US provoked the secrative state, claiming it is in ‘range of (nuclear) strikes’, according to Rodong Sinmun on Monday.
But there are questions over whether Pyongyang can miniaturise a nuclear weapon sufficiently to fit it onto a missile nose cone, or has mastered the re-entry technology needed to ensure it survives returning into Earth’s atmosphere.
The North has carried out two atomic tests and dozens of missile launches since the beginning of last year.
CHINA WANTS TO PUT TIES WITH SOUTH KOREA BACK ON A ‘NORMAL TRACK’ China wants to put ties with South Korea back on a ‘normal track’, President Xi Jinping said on Friday, but Beijing also urged Seoul to respect its concerns and resolve tensions over the deployment of a U. S. anti-missile system that it opposes. Relations between Beijing and Seoul, strained by disagreement over South Korea’s hosting of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, have taken on a more conciliatory tone with the election earlier this month of President Moon Jae-in.Xi told Moon’s representative Lee Hae-chan on Friday that his visit showed the importance the new South Korean leader attached to relations with Beijing. A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery, is deployed at a golf course in Seongju, South Korea (pictured on Friday)’China, too, pays great attention to the bilateral ties,’ Xi said in comments in front of reporters in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.’We’re willing to work with South Korea to preserve the hard-won results, properly handle disputes, put China-South Korea relations back onto a normal track and benefit both peoples on the basis of mutual understanding and mutual respect,’ he said. China has been infuriated by the U.S. deployment of the THAAD system in South Korea, saying it was a threat to its security and would do nothing to ease tensions with Pyongyang.The United States and South Korea have said the deployment is aimed purely at defending against any threat from North Korea, which experts have thought for months is preparing for its sixth nuclear test in defiance of United Nations sanctions. Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) told South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s representative Lee Hae-chan (left) on Friday that his visit showed the importance the new South Korean leader attached to relations with Beijing
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