(Reuters)
Josh Smith May 8, 2019 13:40
SEOUL - Last week's "strike drill" in which North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch of rockets and at least one short-range ballistic missile was "regular and self-defensive," the North's foreign ministry said on Wednesday, according to state media.
"The recent drill conducted by our army is nothing more than part of the regular military training, and it has neither targeted anyone nor led to an aggravation of the situation in the region," an unidentified ministry spokesperson said in a statement to the state-run KCNA news agency.
Saturday's drill was the first test of a ballistic missile by North Korea since it launched a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile in November 2017.
It came in the wake of talks with the United States and South Korea stalling in February, and raised alarms in both countries, which have been seeking to entice the North into abandoning its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
Seoul responded on Saturday by calling on its northern neighbor to "stop acts that escalate military tension on the Korean Peninsula."
But U.S. President Donald Trump, who has met with Kim twice, said he was still confident he could have a deal with Kim, and South Korean officials have also played down the test.
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