North Korea carried out a simulated “nuclear counterattack”

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “led a combined tactical exercise simulating a nuclear counterattack involving very large multiple rocket launchers”declared Tuesday, April 23, the North Korean state agency KCNA.

The exercises tested the management system for the first time “nuclear trigger” of Pyongyang, the agency reported, specifying that it is a combined control system for the country’s nuclear weapons. According to her, the projectiles “equipped with simulated nuclear warheads” reached their target located 352 km from the launch point. The leader expressed “his great satisfaction with the result of the exercise”added the agency.

The exercise took place on Monday, according to the agency. The South Korean military announced that day that the North had fired a salvo of short-range ballistic missiles, which Japan confirmed. According to Seoul, the missiles were launched from the Pyongyang region and landed in the waters east of the Korean peninsula.

The exercise made it possible to examine “the reliability of the command, management, control and operation system of the entire nuclear force” and to ensure that the very large multiple rocket launchers were able to switch to nuclear counterattack mode, detailed KCNA.

Reprisals

According to the agency, this simulation is a response to the annual US-South Korean air training which has been taking place since April 12 at the Kunsan base in South Korea. Exercises that North Korea judges “extremely provocative and aggressive” and openly directed against her, the agency said. In response, the North is obliged to “to strengthen its strongest military power more massively and more quickly”.

The US and South Korean air forces have stressed that the annual exercises serve to “demonstrate the effectiveness of weapons in the air domain and strengthen their capacity to deter, defend and defeat any adversary”.

Pyongyang takes a dim view of the joint military maneuvers that the United States, South Korea and Japan regularly organize in the region, seeing them as general rehearsals before an invasion of its territory or an overthrow of its regime.

The last shot “is an exercise designed for a scenario showing how the Kim regime would respond to a surprise aerial bombardment of Pyongyang by joint U.S. and South Korean air forces”Han Kwon-hee of the Korea Defense Industry Studies Association told Agence France-Presse. “Exercise shows response could include nuclear missile retaliation on South”he added.

Strengthened ties with Moscow

After a record missile test in 2023, North Korea has carried out several launches since the start of the year. The North Korean regime notably claimed in early April to have tested a new medium-to-long-range solid-fueled hypersonic missile. On Friday, he announced the trial of a “very large warhead” designed for a strategic cruise missile.

Since 2006, Pyongyang has been the subject of a series of UN sanctions which have been reinforced several times subsequently, and which notably prohibit it from developing ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. The Kim Jong-un regime nevertheless continued its banned military programs and, in 2022, declared “irreversible” its status as a nuclear power. He also considerably toughened his tone against South Korea, now described as“main enemy” with whom any prospect of reunification is in vain.

In March, Russia vetoed in the Security Council a draft resolution extending for one year the mandate of the committee of experts responsible for monitoring the implementation of these sanctions. North Korea has recently strengthened its ties with Mosou, its traditional ally isolated since the start of the war in Ukraine. Washington and Seoul accuse Pyongyang of supplying weapons to Russia in exchange for military technologies.