North Korea carried out a "nuclear counterattack" exercise over the weekend in the presence of leader Kim Jong-un with a view to sending an "even more serious warning" to the maneuvers by Seoul and Washington, North Korean media reported Monday. in one more step in the escalation of tension in the peninsula.
"Combined tactical exercises were held on March 18 and 19 to substantially strengthen the country's war deterrence and nuclear counterattack capabilities," state news agency KCNA reported. The exercise that simulated "a nuclear counterattack by units operating tactical nuclear weapons took place in a tense situation where allied forces of the US and South Korea are frantically intensifying their large-scale war drills to invade the Republic People's Republic of Korea (North's official name) and massive US strategic nuclear assets are brought into South Korea," the KCNA added.
Last Sunday, two Pentagon strategic bombers conducted exercises with US and South Korean fighters over the peninsula in the Freedom Shield Spring Combined Exercises and after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday and another that appeared to be short-range on Thursday. Sunday. "The drill was also aimed at demonstrating our strong willingness to provide a real war response and to send an even more serious warning to the enemy, which is expanding its war drills for aggression," KCNA added.
North Korea has repeatedly warned that it would make a forceful response to the Freedom Shield exercises, which kicked off on March 13 and will last until March 23. KCNA explained that the two-day exercises were divided "into an exercise to manage the security system nuclear attack control", which sought to train the units involved to "adopt a nuclear counterattack posture", and then "a drill to launch a tactical ballistic missile with a simulated nuclear warhead" which was held on Sunday.
The missile, whose launch was detected and reported yesterday by the South Korean army, was launched from North Pyongan, near the Sohae space launch center (northwest of the country), and "exploded with precision at an altitude of 800 meters" coinciding with a simulated target. established on the waters of the Yellow Sea. This "once again demonstrates the reliability of the operation of nuclear explosion control devices and detonators installed on the nuclear warhead," the North Korean state agency said.
According to expert estimates based on released images of the launch, the missile appears to have been fired from a silo that had been built on the southeastern edge of the Sohae space complex. Leader Kim Jong-un, whose photos released by the KCNA show him watching the exercises with his daughter, said he was very pleased with the results.
In the photographs published by KCNA and also broadcast, as a still image, by the KCTV network, a North Korean officer also appears next to Kim whose face has been purposely blurred so that it is not recognizable. The man also wears a mask and sunglasses, in a gesture possibly intended to prevent him from being identified so as not to be included on lists of individuals subject to financial sanctions for his relationship with the North Korean nuclear and missile program.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
