North Korea says it conducted ‘tactical nuclear’ drills, the first in five years

North Korea claimed on Monday, October 10, to have simulated strikes “tactical nuclear” the past two weeks. Personally supervised by Kim Jong-un, these shootings are presented by the North Korean regime as responses to the “military threat” of the United States and its allies.

Seven ballistic missile launches have been carried out in the past two weeks. One of these projectiles flew over Japan for the first time since 2017. The international community expects North Korea to conduct a nuclear test soon for the first time in five years.

The aim of these shots was “to verify and assess the country’s nuclear deterrence and counter-attack capability”, according to the official KCNA agency. The North Korean army notably simulated a “loading of tactical nuclear warheads” aboard a missile launched from a silo located under an artificial lake in the northwest of the country.

Faced with this growing threat, the United States, South Korea and Japan have recently conducted extensive naval and air exercises around the Korean peninsula, including the deployment of the American aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan. But these maneuvers are seen by North Korea as a dress rehearsal for an invasion of its territory.