North Korea's Kim Vows To Respond To Nuclear Threats, Oversees Missile Test

SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed his country would respond to nuclear threats with nuclear weapons, state media reported Saturday, a day after Pyongyang test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The official KCNA news agency said Kim observed Friday’s missile launch alongside his wife and daughter. The news agency quoted him saying the test confirmed that North Korea has another “reliable and maximum-capacity” weapon.

Kim said threats from the United States and its allies prompted his country to “substantially accelerate the bolstering of its overwhelming nuclear deterrence.”

“Our party and government will resolutely react to nukes with nuclear weapons and to total confrontation with all-out confrontation,” KCNA reported Kim as saying.