Pyongyang, February 19 (KCNA) -- An ICBM launching drill was conducted on the afternoon of February 18.

The Missile General Bureau guided the drill, and involved in it was the First Red Flag Hero Company which has rich launching experience among the units operating ICBMs.

The company is a firepower company with the most excellent combat capability among those sub-units wholly responsible for the strategic mission. It performed a proud feat by launching a new-type ICBM Hwasongpho-17 on November 18, 2022.

The drill was suddenly organized without previous notice under an emergency firepower combat standby instruction given at dawn of February 18 and a written order by the Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) at 8:00 a.m. of the day.

Specified in the written order on launching drill carrying a personal signature of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un were the contents that the First Red Flag Hero Company of the Missile General Bureau should be mobilized in a drill using ICBM Hwasongpho-15 and, through a sudden launching drill, the reliability of the weapon system should be reconfirmed and verified while getting the combat preparedness of the DPRK nuclear force recognized and proving confidence and guarantee for correct operation, reactivity, reliability, effectiveness and combat capability of the components of the state nuclear deterrence.

On the honorable combat orders, the First Red Flag Hero Company conducted a high-angle launch of Hwasongpho-15 through the maximum range system at Pyongyang International Airport on Saturday afternoon.

The missile traveled up to a maximum altitude of 5 768.5 km and flew 989 km for 4 015 seconds before accurately hitting the pre-set area in open waters of the East Sea of Korea. The company got an "excellent mark" at the assessment.

The WPK Central Military Commission highly appreciated the actual war capacity of the ICBM units which are ready for mobile and mighty counterattack.

It gave all the missile units, assigned to a strategic task for coping with the military circumstances prevailing in the Korean Peninsula, an order to thoroughly maintain their strengthened combat readiness.

The surprise ICBM launching drill, conducted in the present situation under which the military threats of the U.S. and south Korea are getting serious to the extent that can not be overlooked, is an actual proof of the DPRK strategic nuclear force's consistent efforts to turn its capacity of fatal nuclear counterattack on the hostile forces into the irresistible one as well as a guarantee for and a clear proof of the sure reliability of our powerful physical nuclear deterrent.