North Korea condemns US test launch of ICBM

Pyongyang May 6 (IANS) North Korea condemned the US test launch of an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) earlier this week media reports said.

The test-fire of an ICBM on May 3 followed an earlier one on April 26 at a time when the situation on the Korean Peninsula has reached an extremely dangerous phase due to the largest-ever joint military drills between South Korea and the US the official Korean Central News Agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying on Friday.

The US claims the two ICBM test-fires conducted just in a little over one week were planned one year ago and they have nothing to do with the DPRK s nuclear and long-range ballistic missile launch but many world media are concerned that the consecutive ICBM tests by the US can push the acute situation on the Korean Peninsula to a graver phase said the spokesman.

The US maintains it may carry out missile launches but the DPRK (Democratic People s Republic of Korea) can not and that its launches are a contribution to peace and security while the DPRK s are a provocation straining tension. This sophism is the height of double-dealing standards Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

For the second time in a week the US Air Force test launched another unarmed ICBM capable of carrying a nuclear warhead from an air base in California Wednesday morning. North Korea describes the test launch as a simulation strike against it.

--IANS
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