N. Korea will test-fire ICBM in not too distant future: party's official newspaper

North Korea's official newspaper claimed Saturday that a test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile is not far away.

"The series of recent strategic weapons tests show that we are not too far away from test-firing an intercontinental ballistic missile," the Rodong Sinmun said in an editorial.

The claim indicates the regime has continued to advance its missile technology since its leader Kim Jong-un said during his annual address on Jan. 1 that the regime was in the final stage of developing ICBM technology.

On Thursday, the North fired what appeared to be several short-range anti-ship cruise missiles from its east coast in the latest series of missile tests in defiance of international sanctions, according to the South Korean military. They flew some 200 kilometers.

It marked the fifth missile test-fire by the North since liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-in took office May 10.

Pyongyang has recently launched different types of missiles, including a new intermediate-range ballistic missile and a surface-to-air missile.

"The great success of test-firing an intercontinental ballistic missile, which we are sure to achieve, will mark a historic watershed moment in the failure of the US hostile policy against us," the editorial in the ruling Workers' Party's mouthpiece read. "Historically speaking, the US has never dared to go to war with a country that possesses nuclear weapons or ICBMs."

It also warned that it has the technology to strike the US mainland with a nuclear-tipped missile.

A senior US government official also forecast that the North will likely be ready to test-fire an ICBM within the year.

"I would just repeat what the intelligence community says. North Korea is poised to conduct its first ICBM test in 2017," Robert Soofer, deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and missile defense policy, was quoted by the Japanese Kyodo news service as saying at a hearing of the US Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.

"They made further progress in their ability to develop re-entry vehicles in their last test.... The pace of the threat is advancing faster than I think was considered when we did the first ballistic missile defense review back in 2010," the Pentagon official added. (Yonhap)