North Korea threatens WW3 with missile launch from golf course

North Korea says it tested new solid-fuel long-range missile

North Korea sensationally issued a chilling threat as it broadcast images that showed a missile being launched from its leader Kim Jong-un’s golf course.

Described by insiders as one of the Asian nation’s “most powerful” missiles, images suggest the launch was made on the greenery of a golf course, with experts claiming if real, the West could be faced with a serious military headache.

The footage appeared to show North Korea’s new Hwasong-18 rocket being tested from a site east of Pyongyang.

That’s the verdict of Sam Lair, a North Korea expert from the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

And for fellow expert Jacob Bogle, the center reports, it will be seen as a flexing of its military muscles, and one that proves regardless of what happens to North Korea, the country can fire its weapons from anywhere.

Everything down to the location was planned, Mr Bogle argued, continuing: “Basically, it’s a threat – ‘we can do this from anywhere and if you attack our dedicated ballistic missiles bases, we can still drive off to a random golf course or wherever and launch a nuke.'”

Mr Bogle believed the site the footage was taken on came from a golf course after he created a map of the country using satellite images.

A mansion in the Samsok District of east Pyongyang, Mr Bogle suggested, was the likely position of where the launch took place, “along a bend in the Taedong River”.

He continued: “There isn’t much public information about this complex, but the mansion includes a large banquet hall and has one of North Korea’s three known golf courses.

“They’ve been launching from a diverse range of locations like runways, roads and beaches, and I suspect it’s to demonstrate their ability to launch from unsuspected places and different terrains.”

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The insider added it showed that even if “the West were to destroy North Korea’s known missile bases” it could “still have mobile launch units fire from airports, highways, beaches and even palaces”.

It comes as North Korea maintained it would ignore demands from the US and its allies over stopping its nuclear weapons procurement, and instead continue until the West’s threat was removed.

According to the country’s state news agency KCNA, North Korea’s foreign minister Choe Son Hui criticised Washington and other G7 members after the organisations statement in Japan on Tuesday.

It lashed out at Pyongyang’s testing on April 13, and the claims North Korea were using a “solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile”.

But Cho said North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapon hub would not be diminished despite the pleas.

She said: “We will never seek any recognition or approval from anyone, as we are satisfied with our access to the strength for a tit-for-tat strike against the US nuclear threat.”

The minister even accused the G7 of acting illegally when set out its demands for denuclearisation.

She added: “We will continue to take action measures based on all legal rights granted to a sovereign state until the military threat posed by the US and its allied forces hostile toward us is completely removed.”

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