On Tuesday, the US Air Force successfully carried out the first live-fire test of its Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, intercepting an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) target over the Pacific Ocean. During the test, the target was launched from the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
A representative of the North Korean army's Strategic Forces told Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in an interview that the US GMD test is a "dangerous military provocation."
"On May 30, the US imperialists conducted a test simulating the interception of an intercontinental ballistic missile by our republic [the DPRK] at the Vandenberg base in California, which is a dangerous military provocation," the statement said, Sputnik reported.
According to the North Korean military of the Strategic Forces, the test "shows that the preparation for war from the US side has reached its final stage."
"Now the US is bluffing claiming the success of its test of intercepting an ICBM, but we consider it to be a vain short temper of the United States, which is in a desperate situation. The US should not think that it can withstand the shower of a nuclear strike by our [North Korean] Strategic Forces and keep going. Nuclear war of the Trump administration will only accelerate the greatest trouble in history — the transformation of the United States into ashes," the North Korean military claimed.
The controversial statement comes after a series of DPRK-US mutual accusations and threats amid an escalation on the Korean Peninsula following latest numerous missile tests carried out by Pyongyang.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump sent an aircraft-carrying group he called an "armada" to Korean shores. North Korean leadership vowed to sink the USS Ronald Reagan and conduct "preemptive" missile strikes on US bases in Japan, South Korea and the United States itself if feels "threatened."
According to open sources, the GMD missile defense complex entered into service back in 2005. It is designed to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles and their combat units in outer space beyond the Earth's atmosphere.
At present, 30 anti-missile rockets are deployed in Alaska and California to protect the continental territory of the United States; another 15 missiles are expected to be completed in 2017.