North Korea's "strike drill" last week at which leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch of rockets and at least one short-range ballistic missile was "regular and self-defensive," the North's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday, according to state media.
"The recent drill conducted by our army is nothing more than part of the regular military training, and it has neither targeted anyone nor led to an aggravation of the situation in the region," an unidentified ministry spokesperson said in a statement to the state-run KCNA news agency.
Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told a congressional hearing Wednesday that North Korea launched "rockets and missiles," the first time the Pentagon has detailed what it believes Pyongyang fired.