Pyongyang: Amid the largest joint military exercises in years between the United States and South Korea, its neighbouring North Korea claimed to simulate a "nuclear attack" on Seoul with a ballistic missile. According to local media reports, North’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un instructed his military to hold more drills to sharpen the war readiness of his nuclear forces in the face of “aggression” by his enemies.
The South Korean and Japanese militaries detected the short-range missile being launched Sunday into waters off the North’s eastern coast, which reportedly came less than an hour before the US flew long-range B-1B bombers for training with South Korean warplanes.
"Acted in defence"
The North characterizes the US-South Korea exercises as a rehearsal to invade, though the allies insist they are defensive in nature. Some experts say the North uses the exercises as a pretext to advance its weapons programs.
Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said the missile, which flew about 800 kilometres (500 miles), was tipped with a mock nuclear warhead. It described the test as successful, saying that the device detonated as intended 800 meters (yards) above water at a spot that simulated an unspecified “major enemy target,” supposedly reaffirming the reliability of the weapon’s nuclear explosion control devices and warhead detonators.
The report said the launch was the final step of a two-day drill that also involved nuclear command and control exercises and training military units to switch more quickly into nuclear counterattack posture, properly handle nuclear weapons systems and execute attack plans.
The exercise was also a “stronger warning” to the United States and South Korea, who are “undisguised in their explicit attempt to unleash a war” against the North, KCNA said.
North Korea's missiles launch increased in past 3 years
North Korean photos indicated the latest launch was of a solid-fuel missile apparently modelled after Russia’s Iskander mobile ballistic system that the North has been testing since 2019. The missiles are built to travel at low altitudes and be manoeuvrable in flight, which theoretically improves their chances of evading South Korean missile defences.
While these missiles have been mostly fired from wheeled vehicles, North Korea has also tested them or their variants from railcars, a submarine and a platform inside a reservoir. Photos of the latest test suggested the missile was possibly fired from a silo dug into the ground, highlighting the North’s efforts to diversify its launch options and make it harder for opponents to identify and counter them.
South Korea’s military said the launch took place at a mountainous northwestern region near Tongchangri, which hosts a site where the North conducted long-range rocket and satellite launches in previous years.
(With inputs from agency)
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