North Korea yesterday said that its latest missile launches simulated “scorched earth” nuclear strikes on South Korea and that it has also been rehearsing an occupation of its rival’s territory in the event of conflict.
Pyongyang has previously tested nuclear-capable missiles and described how it would use them in potential wars with South Korea and the US. However, the North’s disclosure of detailed war plans reaffirmed its aggressive nuclear doctrine to intimidate its opponents, as it escalates its protest of the ongoing South Korean-US military exercises that it views as a major security threat, observers said.
North Korea’s military fired two tactical ballistic missiles from the capital on Wednesday night to practice “scorched earth strikes” at major command centers and operational airfields in South Korea, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The North’s military said the missiles carried out their simulated strikes through air bursts, suggesting it confirmed the explosions of dummy warheads at a set altitude.
Pyongyang said its missile tests were in response to the US’ flyover of long-range B-1B bombers for a joint aerial training with South Korea earlier on Wednesday.
The aerial drill “is a serious threat to [North Korea] as it was just pursuant to the scenario for a pre-emptive nuclear strike at” North Korea, the Korean People’s Army (KPA) general staff said. “The KPA will never overlook the rash acts of the US forces and the [South Korean] military gangsters.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
The missile launches on Wednesday were the latest in the North’s barrage of weapons tests since last year.
The two short-range missiles traveled 360 to 400km at a maximum altitude of 50km before landing in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, South Korean and Japanese assessments showed.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff called the launches “a grave provocation” that threatens international peace and violates UN Security Council resolutions that ban any ballistic launches by North Korea.
The US Indo-Pacific Command said that Washington’s commitment to the defense of South Korea and Japan remains “ironclad.”
KCNA said in a separate report that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Tuesday visited an army post where his military has been holding command post drills in response to the South Korean-US military training.
It said the drills are aimed at practicing procedures for “occupying the whole territory of the southern half” of the Korean Peninsula in the event of war.
Kim underscored the need to “deal a heavy blow at the enemy’s war potential and war command center and blinding their means of command communication at the initial stage of operation.”
Kim also detailed tasks to acquire an ability to launch “simultaneous super-intense strikes” at key enemy military targets and other sites whose destruction can cause social and economic chaos, KCNA said.
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