North Korea condemns U.S. missile test

PYONGYANG, North Korea, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- North Korea Saturday called a U.S. missile defense test a threat and vowed to strengthen its defense measures in response.

North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland released a statement saying the U.S. test, which was conducted Friday over the Pacific Ocean, "was aimed at attacking us and intercepting our missiles," the BBC reported Saturday.

The committee also called the United States the "the main culprit" in the threat of war on the Korean peninsula.

"It is a folly that the United States wields the truncheons of power in order to scare someone into submission ... This only leads the army and the people to firm up their determination to build up our self-defensive military deterrence," the statement said.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency earlier announced an interceptor had successfully halted a target fired from Alaska.

"What we did today is a huge step in terms of our systematic approach to continuing to field, continuing to deploy and continuing to develop a missile defence system for the US, for our allies, our friends, our deployed forces around the world," said Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, director of the MDA.