North Korea condemns US test launch of inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM)

Pyongyang : North Korea condemned the US test launch of an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) earlier this week, media reports said.

The test-fire of an ICBM on May 3 followed an earlier one on April 26 "at a time when the situation on the Korean Peninsula has reached an extremely dangerous phase due to the largest-ever joint military drills" between South Korea and the US, the official Korean Central News Agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying on Friday.

"The US claims the two ICBM test-fires conducted just in a little over one week were planned one year ago and they have nothing to do with the DPRK's nuclear and long-range ballistic missile launch, but many world media are concerned that the consecutive ICBM tests by the US can push the acute situation on the Korean Peninsula to a graver phase," said the spokesman.

"The US maintains it may carry out missile launches but the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) can not and that its launches are a 'contribution' to peace and security while the DPRK's are a 'provocation' straining tension. This sophism is the height of double-dealing standards," Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

For the second time in a week, the US Air Force test launched another unarmed ICBM capable of carrying a nuclear warhead from an air base in California Wednesday morning. North Korea describes the test launch as a simulation strike against it.