The Impact of “Hwasong-14” ICBM and Its Meaning; North Korean Ambassador to Tehran Illustrates

Successful test-firing of Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic rocket by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is shaking the whole world. What does the test-firing of the new-type ICBM following the May test-firing of ground-to-ground intermediate strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 mean?

First, it demonstrated the might of the DPRK as a nuclear-armed nation in the East and its strategic position.

It has already possessed H-bomb, and produces miniaturized, light and diversified nuclear warheads. What remained was the means of delivery. After possessing nuclear weapons, it has directed great efforts to developing its nuclear forces at breakneck speed so as to put an end to nuclear threat by the US. The maximum height of the ground-to-ground intermediate-range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-10, which was launched in June 2016, was 1 413.6km. And the maximum height of Hwasong-12 launched in May 2017 was 2 111.5km, about 700km higher than that of Hwasong-10. After less than two months, the country succeeded in test-firing Hwasong-14, an ICBM, the last gateway to perfecting its national nuclear forces. Hwasong-14 climbed along the flight track up to the maximum height of 2 802km and flew 933km for 39 minutes. The speed of development is quite surprising.

The country achieved epoch-making successes in developing the technology for launching rocket.

Most of its strategic rockets were test-fired based on vertical firing technology. On June 27, 2016, the Federation of Koreans in the US commented: Vertical firing is impossible without outstanding technology; as it is so difficult, no country has so far tested vertical firing; through vertical firing, the DPRK tested its ICBM without inflicting damage on other countries.

Success in the test-firing of Hwasong-14 demonstrated that the DPRK is a fully-fledged nuclear-armed nation possessed with ICBMs.

Second, sanction or pressure cut no ice with the DPRK and nothing can check its advance.

The Trump administration presented “maximum pressure and engagement” as its policy towards the DPRK, and has since resorted to unprecedented schemes to isolate and stifle the country. What the US and its vassal forces do not know is that the DPRK developed its nuclear weapons and manufactured ICBMs on the strength of self-reliance and self-development without any aid or help from any other developed countries, and moreover, it achieved these great successes amid extreme sanctions imposed by them. Though the situation was complicated and difficult, it did not waver in the least nor gave up its nuclear weapons and building up its nuclear deterrent, the treasured sword for safeguarding justice and sovereignty.

All the successes achieved recently in building up its nuclear deterrent as well as the monumental structures like Ryomyong Street that was built in the situation teetering on the brink of nuclear war embody the thoroughgoing spirit of independence.

The DPRK performs without fail what it is determined to do, and no force can check its advance.

Third, successful test-firing of Hwasong-14 solemnly foretold the end of the US ambition for world supremacy.

The ICBM was launched on July 4, Independence Day of the US. This is quite meaningful. The US is the source of all evil, a country that threatens other countries with nuclear weapons and commits military attacks arbitrarily against small, weak and non-nuclear countries, a country that caused refugee crisis and threat of terrorism across the world. The DPRK succeeded in test-firing its strategic weapon, which could reduce the US proper to ashes, on the very Independence Day of the country of evil.

A breach has now been made in the US nuclear superiority in the world and the myth of the US century.

It is a fait accompli that if the US dares to conduct a preemptive nuclear strike against the DPRK, the DPRK’s nuclear warheads carried by Hwasong-14 will raze the US proper and its bases of aggression in an instant.

Thanks to the nuclear weapons of the DPRK that contain the US, bright prospects are opening for the Korean peninsula and for global peace. So long as the DPRK possesses nuclear weapons of justice, the US will never start a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula, which would only bring its end, and peace in Northeast Asia and the rest of the world will be reliably guaranteed.

Hwasong-14 tells the progressive peoples of the world the truth that genuine peace is guaranteed by nuclear weapons of justice.