A television screen shows a file image of a North Korean missile launch during a news program at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, April 22, 2024. North Korea fired on Monday several suspected short-range ballistic missiles towards its eastern waters, South Korea said. said the army.
Ahn Young-joon/AP
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Ahn Young-joon/AP
A television screen shows a file image of a North Korean missile launch during a news program at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, April 22, 2024. North Korea fired on Monday several suspected short-range ballistic missiles towards its eastern waters, South Korea said. said the army.
Ahn Young-joon/AP
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the country’s “super-large” multiple rocket launch salvos that simulated a nuclear counterattack against enemy targets, state media said Tuesday. state, adding to the tests and threats that have increased tensions in the country. region.
The report from North Korea’s official news agency came a day after South Korean and Japanese militaries detected the North firing what they suspected were several short-range ballistic missiles from an area near its capital , Pyongyang, towards its eastern seas.
Analysts say North Korea’s large artillery rockets blur the line between artillery systems and ballistic missiles because they can create their own thrust and are guided when fired. The North has described some of these systems, including the 600mm multiple rocket launchers tested Monday, as capable of carrying tactical nuclear warheads.
KCNA said Monday’s launches represented the first demonstration of the country’s nuclear weapons management and control system called “Haekbangashoe” or “nuclear trigger.” The report describes the exercise as aimed at demonstrating the strength and diversity of attack assets of North Korea’s nuclear forces amid growing tensions with the United States and South Korea, which it describes as ” warmongers” stoking tensions in the region with their combined military exercises.
State media photos showed at least four rockets fired from launchers as Kim watched from an observation post. The rockets traveled 352 kilometers (218 miles) before precisely hitting an island target and the exercise verified the reliability of the “command, management, control and operation system of the entire force nuclear”.
KCNA said Kim expressed satisfaction, saying the multiple rocket launchers were as accurate as a “sniper rifle.”
He said the exercise was crucial to “preparing our nuclear force to be capable of quickly and properly carrying out its important mission of deterring war and seizing the initiative in war at any time and in any sudden situation”. The comments reflect North Korea’s nuclear doctrine of escalation, which authorizes the military to launch preemptive nuclear strikes against enemies if it perceives the leaders to be threatened.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the weapons fired Monday traveled about 300 kilometers (185 miles) before crashing into the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. The ranges suggest the weapons would likely target sites in South Korea. The latest launches came as the South and the United States conduct a two-week combined air exercise that continues through Friday, aimed at strengthening their capabilities to respond to North Korean threats.
Asked about the North Korean claims, Lee Sung Joon, a spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it was unclear whether the North had perfected the design of small field nuclear weapons. battle gear that can be installed on its rockets. He insisted that the North was likely exaggerating the accuracy of its multiple launch rocket systems and that South Korea would be able to detect and intercept such weapons, without elaborating on its specific missile defense capabilities. .
Lee said it was possible the North used the exercise to test multiple rocket launchers it plans to export to Russia as the two countries expand military cooperation amid separate and escalating confrontations. intensify with the United States. The United States and South Korea have accused North Korea of transferring artillery shells, missiles and other munitions to Russia to help it expand its fighting in Ukraine.
In recent months, North Korea has maintained an accelerated pace of weapons testing as it continues to expand its military capabilities while diplomacy with the United States and South Korea has remained stalled. Officials and outside analysts say Kim’s goal is to pressure the United States to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and to negotiate economic and security concessions from a position of strength.
In response to North Korea’s evolving nuclear threats, the United States and South Korea have increased bilateral and trilateral military exercises with Japan. Countries are also refining their nuclear deterrence strategies built around U.S. strategic assets.
In recent years, North Korea has tested nuclear-capable missiles designed to strike sites in South Korea, Japan and the U.S. mainland. Many experts say North Korea already has nuclear missiles capable of reaching all of South Korea and Japan, but it has not yet done so. develop functional intercontinental ballistic missiles that can travel to the continental United States
The latest launches came days after North Korea announced Saturday that it had tested a “very large” cruise missile warhead and a new anti-aircraft missile in a western coastal area early last week. In early April, North Korea also tested what it called an intermediate-range solid-fuel missile with hypersonic nuclear warhead capabilities, a weapon that experts say is intended to attack distant targets in the territory American Guam, the Pacific, and beyond.
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