N. Korea Ready to Test-fire Intercontinental Ballistic Missile 'at Any Time, At Any Place'

North Korea is ready to test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile "at any time, at any place," a senior diplomat in Pyongyang was quoted as saying Wednesday.

Choe Kang-il, deputy director general for North American affairs at the North's foreign ministry, made the threat in an interview in Pyongyang with NBC Television, repeating Pyongyang's long-running claims its nuclear and missile programs are for self-defense purposes.

"Our measures to bolster our nuclear arsenal are all defensive in nature -- to defend our sovereignty and to cope with the persistent nuclear blackmail and threats by the United States against our country," Choe was quoted as saying, according to the report.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said in his New Year's Day address that the country has entered the final stage of preparations to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile, an apparent threat that the North is close to developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of striking the continental U.S.

In response, U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to stop the North from mastering such ICBM capabilities, saying that the North's development of a nuclear missile capable of striking the U.S. "won't happen," though he didn't elaborate how he would stop it.

Last week, officials said that the South and the U.S. have picked up indications that the North has placed two ICBMs on mobile launchers for apparent test-firing, an indication that the threatened test could come earlier than expected.

Choe claimed the U.S. has posed threats to the North, riling against the annual U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises that the communist nation has long denounced as a rehearsal for invasion of the country.

"Imagine if our troops went to Canada and Mexico to carry out a nuclear exercise aimed at invading the U.S. What kind of...