New provocation from Pyongyang. After last week’s twin ballistic missile launches, North Korea tested two “long-range strategic cruise missiles” in the presence of leader Kim Jong-un, who touted the test as another successful demonstration of the capability. of the country’s nuclear strike, the official KCNA news agency reported on Thursday.
The latest test comes in a record slew of weapons tests this year that have heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula and heightened fears that Pyongyang could carry out its first nuclear test since 2017.
Kim Jong-un personally supervised the missile launches on Wednesday, which traveled 2,000 kilometers over the Yellow Sea, KCNA said. The agency added that the projectiles hit their intended targets, without giving further details.
Simulation of nuclear exercises
Kim Jong-un expressed his “great satisfaction” with the tests, which aimed to enhance the combat effectiveness of the missiles “deployed in units of the Korean People’s Army for the operation of tactical nuclear weapons”, KCNA reported.
Pyongyang announced this week that its recent missile tests were “tactical nuclear” exercises aimed at simulating a strike on South Korea. After Wednesday’s tests, the North Korean leader stressed that his country should “expand the operational sphere of strategic nuclear armed forces”, according to KCNA. “Kim Jong-un stressed that we should focus all our efforts on the continuous and accelerated development of national combat nuclear armed forces,” the agency added.
Kim made the acquisition of tactical nuclear weapons, smaller and lighter weapons designed for use on the battlefield, a top priority at a key Party congress in January 2021. He pledged this year to develop North Korean nuclear forces as quickly as possible.
military exercises
Last month, the reclusive country revised its nuclear doctrine to allow for preemptive strikes. In addition, Kim declared North Korea an “irreversible” nuclear power, which ended any possibility of negotiation over its arsenal.
Since then, Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have stepped up their combined military drills, including twice deploying a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to the region, provoking the ire of Pyongyang, which consistently denounces the drills as rehearsals of invasion.
In response, the North staged “real war” maneuvers, simulating strikes against South Korea’s ports, airports and military command facilities, KCNA reported on Monday.