Communist dictator of North Korea Kim Jong-un declared through state media on Wednesday that the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was necessary to “clearly show what action the DPRK [North Korea] has been prepared and what option the DPRK would take when Washington makes a wrong decision against it.”

Kim’s remarks were paraphrased in an article by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the flagship propaganda outlet of the North Korean regime. News outlets and media not controlled by the state are illegal in North Korea.

In the article, KCNA confirmed that the launch of a long-range missile into the East Sea (or Sea of Japan) on Monday was an ICBM test, naming the missile in question as the “Hwasong-18,” North Korea’s latest publicly known model. Pyongyang debuted the Hwasong-18 in July and claimed that it could accurately hit a target anywhere in the continental United States with a nuclear payload.

North Korea launched the ICBM on the same day that it boasted of a visit by Deputy Foreign Minister Pak Myong Ho to Beijing, where Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi allegedly greeted him warmly and vowed that the Chinese Communist Party would continue to back the neighboring rogue regime.

“In a world fraught with change and instability, China and the DPRK [North Korea] have firmly supported and trusted each other, which demonstrates the strategic significance of China-DPRK friendship and cooperation,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters on Monday. “We would like to work with the DPRK to enhance communication and coordination, deepen exchanges and cooperation in various areas … and advance the sustained and steady growth of China-DPRK friendship and cooperation.”

KCNA attributed the decision to launch the ICBM not to China’s steadfast support of the rogue state, but to defense cooperation between South Korea, America, and Japan meant to track North Korea’s illegal nuclear weapons program. North and South Korea are technically locked in a state of war that began in 1950, although active hostilities ended in 1953. China and the United States are involved in the Korean War as respective allies to the two sides.

“The present situation clearly shows the inveterate confrontation stand of the U.S. and its predominant stooges keen on their unchangeable instinctive and constitutional ambition for aggression,” KCNA claimed in its commentary, “and predicts a black augury of total destruction of the security environment in the Korean peninsula to be further aggravated.”

In the face of a “black augury of total destruction,” Kim ordered the missile launch to ensure that the United States was aware that he was prepared to use nuclear weapons against America, KCNA continued.

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