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North Korea 'will test missiles weekly', senior official tells BBC | North Korea 'will test missiles weekly', senior official tells BBC |
(35 minutes later) | |
North Korea will continue to test missiles despite international condemnation and increasing military tensions with the US, a senior official has told the BBC in Pyongyang. | |
"We'll be conducting more missile tests on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis," Vice Foreign Minister Han Song-Ryol told the BBC's John Sudworth. | |
He said that an "all out war" would result if the US took military action. | |
Earlier, US Vice-President Mike Pence warned North Korea not to test the US. | |
He said his country's "era of strategic patience" with North Korea was over. | |
Mr Pence arrived in Seoul on Sunday hours after North Korea carried out a failed missile launch. | |
Tensions have been escalating on the peninsula, with heated rhetoric from both North Korea and the US. | Tensions have been escalating on the peninsula, with heated rhetoric from both North Korea and the US. |
Speaking alongside South Korea's acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn, Mr Pence said North Korea should not test US President Donald Trump. | |
"Just in the past two weeks, the world witnessed the strength and resolve of our new president in actions taken in Syria and Afghanistan," Mr Pence said. | "Just in the past two weeks, the world witnessed the strength and resolve of our new president in actions taken in Syria and Afghanistan," Mr Pence said. |
"North Korea would do well not to test his resolve or the strength of the armed forces of the United States in this region." | "North Korea would do well not to test his resolve or the strength of the armed forces of the United States in this region." |
He reiterated US support for South Korea, telling his host: "We are with you 100%." | He reiterated US support for South Korea, telling his host: "We are with you 100%." |
At a news conference at the UN on Monday, North Korea's permanent representative Ambassador Kim In-ryong, condemned the US missile strikes in Syria, which targeted an air base after a suspected chemical attack by the government. | |
He said the US was "disturbing global peace and stability and insisting on [a] gangster-like logic". | |
On Saturday, North Korea showed off its missile capabilities in a grand military parade commemorating the 105th anniversary of the birth of the nation's founding president, Kim Il-sung. | |
It had widely been expected to carry out a sixth nuclear test, but instead test-fired a missile on Sunday that exploded within seconds of launch. | |
The state is banned from any missile or nuclear tests by the UN, though it has repeatedly broken those sanctions. | |
North Korea's aim is to be able to put a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile that can reach targets around the world. | |
Pyongyang has claimed to have miniaturised nuclear warheads for use on missiles, though experts have cast doubt on that given the lack of evidence. |