North Korea fires ‘missile’, insists on right to weapons tests

The device was fired from the northern province of Jagang into waters off the east coast, according to the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a Japanese defence ministry spokesman told AFP it "appears to be a ballistic missile".It is the latest in a series of mixed messages from Pyongyang, coming days after leader Kim Jong Un's influential sister Kim Yo Jong, a key adviser to her brother, dangled the prospect of an inter-Korean summit.She condemned as "double standards" South Korean and US criticism of the North's military developments, while the allies build up their own capacities.The North invaded the South in 1950 and hostilities ceased three years later with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving them technically still in a state of conflict.In his own UN General Assembly speech, the North's Kim Song said the North had a right to "develop, test, manufacture and possess" weapons systems equivalent to those of the South and its US ally.- 'Heinous human rights abuser' -Seoul also successfully test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile for the first time, making it one of a handful of nations with the advanced technology.The North has since then repeatedly excoriated the South and its president Moon, and blown up a liaison office on its side of the border that Seoul had built.Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, told AFP: "It looks like North Korea wants to see how genuine Seoul is when it comes to its willingness to improve inter-Korean ties -- and to officially end the Korean War." Washington stations around 28,500 troops in the South to defend it against its neighbour and protect US interests in northeast Asia.But the North has not shown any willingness to give up its arsenal, which it says it needs to defend itself against a US invasion.The North was also due to open a session of its rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People's Assembly, on Tuesday.... Via news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site https://www.news.com.au