North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un oversaw a simulated “nuclear counterstrike” exercise as a response to military actions by other countries. The information was released by the state news agency KCNA this Tuesday (23).
The maneuvers, carried out on Monday (22), showed for the first time the North Korean “nuclear trigger” management system, according to the agency. KCNA highlighted that the missiles “hit their target”, 352 kilometers away. “Kim directed a combined tactical maneuver that simulates a nuclear counterattack with super-large multiple rocket units. He appreciated the precision of the missiles,” the state-owned company said.
The exercise assessed “the reliability of the command, administration, control and operation systems of the entire nuclear force”, according to the official North Korean agency.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Monday that the North Korean missiles were launched from the Pyongyang region and traveled nearly 300 kilometers before falling into the sea east of the Korean peninsula.
KCNA also highlighted that the maneuvers were a response to joint air exercises between South Korea and the United States, which took place from April 12 to 26.
China, middle land
The launch “is an exercise designed to demonstrate how the Kim regime would respond to an aerial bombardment of Pyongyang by joint U.S. and South Korean air forces,” said Han Kwon-hee of the Korean Defense Industry Studies Association. to AFP.
The two countries stated that exercises served to “demonstrate the lethality of their aerial dominance and increase their ability to deter, defend and defeat any adversary”.
This was North Korea’s second launch in less than a week. On Friday (19), the regime tested a “super-large warhead” developed for a strategic cruise missile, state media reported.
Last week’s exercise came after Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution in late March on the surveillance system imposed on North Korea for violations of sanctions related to its nuclear program.
South Korean police said on Tuesday that major North Korean hacker groups had carried out “full-blown” cyber attacks against South Korean defense companies for more than a year, breaking into the companies’ internal networks and stealing technical data. .
Hacker teams linked to North Korea’s intelligence apparatus and known as Lazarus, Kimsuky and Andariel planted malicious code in defense companies’ data systems, police said.
South Korean security agencies worked with a team of experts from the national spy agency and the private sector. Thus, they tracked the hacks and even the groups, identifying them by their source IP addresses, the signal redirection architecture and the signatures of the malware used.
South Korea has emerged as a major global defense exporter, with contracts signed in recent years to sell mechanized howitzers, tanks and fighter jets worth billions of dollars.
Police did not release the names of the companies that were hacked or the nature of the data breached. North Korea denies involvement in hacking operations.