North Korean leader Kim Jong-un supervised a maneuver that simulated a “nuclear counterattack,” according to what the North Korean News Agency reported on Tuesday.
This announcement came the day after the South Korean army monitored North Korea’s launch of a batch of short-range ballistic missiles towards the Sea of Japan, in the latest episode of a series of missile tests that Pyongyang has been conducting since the beginning of the year.
The official North Korean News Agency said on Tuesday morning that during the exercise that took place on Monday and in which “very large missile launcher units” participated, Kim praised the “power and accuracy” of the missiles that “hit their target on an island” located 352 kilometers away.
The agency explained that Kim “supervised joint tactical training simulating a nuclear counterattack.”
– Rocket launchers
She added that this maneuver involved “very large missile launcher units,” stressing that the missiles “equipped with imitation nuclear warheads (…) hit their target on an island” located 352 kilometers away.
The agency quoted Kim as “expressing his great satisfaction” with the success of these exercises.
The South Korean army announced on Monday that the North Korean missiles were launched from the Pyongyang region and flew a distance of approximately 300 kilometers before landing in the waters east of the Korean Peninsula.
The South Korean army described this experiment as a “blatant provocation.”
In turn, Japan confirmed that it had monitored North Korea’s launch of these missiles.
A Japanese government spokesman said that one of the missiles reached a maximum height of 50 kilometers and fell outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
According to the Korean Central News Agency, this simulation came in response to the annual air exercises between the United States and South Korea, which began on April 12 at the Kunsan base in South Korea.
– “Provocative”
The agency said that these exercises, which North Korea considers “very provocative and aggressive,” are openly directed against it.
Pyongyang views with suspicion the joint military exercises regularly conducted by the United States, South Korea and Japan in the region, and considers them exercises aimed at paving the way for the invasion of its territory or the overthrow of its regime.
After a record missile test in 2023, North Korea has carried out numerous missile tests since the beginning of the year.
In early April, the North Korean regime announced that it had tested a new medium-range hypersonic missile powered by solid fuel.
On Friday, Pyongyang announced that it had tested a “very large warhead” designed for a strategic cruise missile.
Pyongyang is subject to a series of sanctions imposed by the United Nations in 2006 and tightened several times later. These sanctions specifically prohibit the North Korean regime from developing ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.
However, the Kim regime continued its banned military programs and, in 2022, declared the country’s status as a nuclear power “irreversible.”
These new trades come after the dissolution of the system monitoring international sanctions imposed on North Korea and its nuclear program following Russia’s use of its veto in the UN Security Council.
In March, Moscow used its veto against a draft resolution extending the mandate of the committee of experts responsible for monitoring these sanctions for one year.
Since the beginning of the year, it has described South Korea as its “main enemy,” closed agencies dedicated to reunification and inter-Korean dialogue, and threatened war if any violation of its territory occurred “even if it does not exceed 0.001 millimeter.”
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