New North Korean missile test. Pyongyang launched two strategic missiles, long-range cruise missiles, hitting a target 2,000 kilometers away. Leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch: the weapons were equipped to carry tactical nuclear weapons and had already been deployed to North Korean army units. The Korean regime recently carried out ballistic missile tests that it described as tactical nuclear exercises that simulated the elimination of airports and military installations across South Korea. Cruise missiles – which travel at much lower altitudes than ballistic missiles, making them more difficult to detect and intercept – they traveled 2,000 kilometers above the sea before hitting their targets.
Kim expressed “great satisfaction” with tests to improve combat efficiency of cruise missiles, which according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) have already been “distributed to Korean People’s Army units for tactical nuclear weapons operations.” Kim said the country’s nuclear-fighting forces were “fully prepared for real war” and said the tests were yet another wake-up call to the country’s enemies. North Korea must “continue to expand the operational sphere of the strategic nuclear armed forces.” to resolutely resolve any crucial military crisis and war crisis,” the state news agency reported.
“Kim Jong Un – he adds – stressed that we must focus all efforts on the infinite and accelerated development of national armed forces for nuclear combat.” The country revised nuclear laws last month to allow for preemptive strikes, with Kim declaring North Korea an “irreversible” nuclear power, effectively ending the possibility of negotiations over its arsenal. Since then, Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have stepped up joint military exercises, including twice sending a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to the area twice. In response, Pyongyang, which sees these exercises as evidence of the invasion, “decided to organize military exercises under the simulation of a real war”.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
