North Korean official vows frequent missile tests as tensions escalate

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North Korea will continue to test missiles despite the growing tensions between the U.S. and its allies and Pyongyang, a senior North Korea official said Monday.

"We'll be conducting more missile tests on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis," Vice Foreign Minister Han Song Ryol told BBC, adding that “all-out war” would occur if the U.S. took military action.

Han reiterated North Korea’s position that it would react with a “nuclear pre-emptive strike by our own style and method” should the U.S. plan a military attack on the country.

Tensions have escalated over North Korean moves to accelerate its weapons development. The North conducted two nuclear tests and 24 ballistic missile tests last year, defying six Security Council sanctions resolutions banning any testing, and it has conducted additional missile tests this year including one this past weekend that failed.

North Korea’s deputy U.N. ambassador Kim In Ryong said during a news conference that the U.S. was turning the Korean Peninsula into “the world’s biggest hotspot” and creating “a dangerous distuation in which a thermonuclear war may break out at any moment.”

He said the Trump administration's deployment of the Carl Vinson nuclear carrier task group to waters off the Korean Peninsula again "proves the U.S. reckless moves for invading the DPRK have reached a serious phase of its scenario."

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