N. Korea labels its first ICBM test ‘July 4 Revolution’

N. Korea labels its first ICBM test ‘July 4 Revolution’. August. 01, 2017 09:22. by In-Chan Hwang hic@donga.com. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the North Korean state news agency, reported on Sunday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a banquet in Pyongyang to celebrate the successful launch of the Hwasong 14, which is believed to be a military-grade ICBM.

  

The KCNA reported that Kim Jong Un attended the banquet, which had been hosted in the Mokran Hall, Pyongyang, by the ruling Workers’ Party’s central committee and the central military committee on Saturday, along with his wife Ri Sol Ju. The list of guests includes Ri Man Gon, the director of the Munitions Industry Department, Ri Byong Chol, the first deputy director of the Munitions Industry Department, Kim Rak Gyom, the commander of the Strategic Force, Kim Jong Sik and Jong Seung Il, the deputy directors of the Munitions Industry Department.   


“We blasted yet another thunderous inter-continental ballistic rocket merely in 20 days (since the first test of the Hwasong 14), and this is truly a historic event eloquently attesting to the astonishing advancement of North Korea’s rocket technologies, its powerful potential, as well as the invincible spirit of the heroic nation of North Korea,” said Ri Man Gon, the chief director of missile development, during a speech in the event. He also called the first test of the Hwasong 14 “July 4 Revolution," saying, "A new global political framework is unfolding with the communist North Korea being the axis of it.” 

On the same day, the Moranbong Band and the National Choir performed a joint concert at the People’s Theater to celebrate the second firing of the Hwasong 14.