North Korea defends missile launch as means of countering 'US military threats'

On Saturday, North Korea defended its recent barrage of missile launches as a necessary response to what it saw as US military threats.

The reclusive communist nation has launched six missiles in violation of sanctions in less than two weeks, with Thursday's launch of two ballistic missiles marking the most recent.

A call to take cover was issued when the North fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile over Japan on Tuesday, which affected communities below.

According to state-run news agency KCNA, North Korea's civil aviation agency stated without naming which launch: "The missile test launch by the DPRK is a regular and planned self-defensive step for defending the country's security and the regional peace from the US direct military threats that have lasted for more than half a century."

The government agency released the statement in response to the International Civil Aviation Organization's Friday condemnation of North Korea's recent missile launches and designation of them as a threat to civil aviation while convening its annual assembly in Montreal.

North Korea, which goes by the acronym DPRK for North Korea's official name, views this ICAO resolution as "a political provocation of the US and its vassal forces aimed to infringe upon the sovereignty of the DPRK."

Joint military exercises between Seoul, Tokyo, and Washington have increased in recent weeks. On Thursday, more manoeuvres were conducted with a US Navy destroyer from the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier's strike group.

The launches are a part of a record-breaking year for North Korea's nuclear testing after its leader Kim Jong Un declared his country to be an "irreversible" nuclear power, thus ruling out the chance of denuclearization negotiations.

According to analysts, Pyongyang has taken advantage of the impasse at the UN to carry out ever-more aggressive missile tests.

Long before China's Party Congress on October 16, officials in Seoul and Washington have been issuing warnings that Pyongyang would also carry out another nuclear test.

(With inputs from AFP)