North Korea Stated Its Cruise Missile To Be Part Of Nuclear Attack Simulations

(CTN NEWS) – To make his adversaries “plunge into despair,” North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un claimed Friday that his country’s cruise missile launches this week were part of nuclear strike drills that also included the detonation of a fictitious underwater drone.

In retaliation for military drills between the United States and its ally South Korea intended to offset the North’s rising nuclear threat, North Korea has increased its weapons demonstrations.

The 11-day exercise, which featured the greatest field training in years, was finished by the partners on Thursday, but North Korea is still anticipated to carry out more nuclear tests as the US is preparing to send an aircraft carrier for more joint exercises with the South.

According to Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency, Kim oversaw a three-day practice that included mock nuclear weapon explosions and simulated nuclear counterattacks against enemy naval assets and ports.

The United States and South Korea are continuing with their “intentional, persistent, and provocative war drills,” which the North perceives as invasion rehearsals, according to KCNA, which said the drills were intended to warn them of a developing “nuclear crisis.”

Latest Drills Verified The Operational Reliability Of An Underwater Nuclear Attack Drone

The news broke just hours before South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol promised to hold North Korea accountable for its “reckless provocations”.

While paying tribute to the dozens of South Korean soldiers who lost their lives in recent significant skirmishes with the North close to their western maritime border.

According to KCNA, the most recent drills proved that an underwater nuclear attack drone the North has been building since 2012 is operationally reliable.

According to the report, the drone was launched Tuesday off the eastern coast of the North, went underwater for about 60 hours, and then exploded a test warhead against a target guarding an enemy port.

It is thought that North Korea has many nuclear warheads and may be able to mount them on more traditional weaponry, like Scud or Rodong missiles.

There are varying opinions on how far it has come in developing those warheads to fit on the new weapons it is developing quickly, which may need for more scientific advancements and nuclear testing.

The North probably doesn’t yet have the technological know-how to arm its most cutting-edge weapons, South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-Sup said while recognizing that the country was making “significant progress.”

Wednesday Tested Cruise Missiles Capacity

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said Pyongyang’s most recent assertion that it has an underwater drone equipped with nuclear weapons should be viewed cautiously.

But it is unmistakably meant to demonstrate that any preemptive or decapitation strike against the Kim regime would fail miserably because it has so many distinct nuclear assault options.

Additionally, on Wednesday, North Korea conducted a test launch of a cruise missile, which the military of South Korea was able to track and announce.

Additionally, it conducted a short-range ballistic missile nuclear strike simulation on Sunday and conducted a flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile last week that may be able to reach the continental United States.

According to KCNA, four cruise missiles of two distinct types were tested on Wednesday.

The missiles demonstrated their capacity to hit targets 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) and 1,800 kilometers (1,118 miles) away while flying in patterns over the ocean for more than two hours.

It claimed that the dummy nuclear warheads on the missiles were set off 600 meters (1,968 feet) over their intended targets, proving the dependability of their nuclear explosion control systems and warhead detonators.

Damaged Done Due To Tested Missiles

According to KCNA, Kim was pleased with the three-day exercises and gave vague instructions for additional duties to fight his adversaries’ “reckless military provocations.”

This suggests North Korea would continue to step up its military shows.

With forceful demonstrations of his military nuclear program, Kim “expressed his will to make the U.S. imperialists and the (South) Korean puppet regime plunge into despair” to make his adversaries realize “they are bound to lose more than they get” with the extension of their joint drills.

Kim made similar statements following the test launch of a short-range ballistic missile from what seemed to be an underground silo on Sunday.

According to the North’s propaganda, the missile’s simulated nuclear warhead exploded 800 meters (2,624 feet) above the water, which some experts believe was done to maximize damage.

Despite having previously asserted that it has carried out mock nuclear attacks on its competitors, it was the first time North Korea had publicly disclosed such an altitude for the explosion of a nuclear weapon.

In a televised speech, Yoon criticized the North’s “unprecedented missile provocations” during a ceremony honoring the 55 troops who have lost their lives in three significant naval encounters with the North since 2002, close to their disputed western maritime boundary.

U.S. and Korea increased Military Joints

They include the 46 sailors who perished in the 2010 sinking of the warship Cheonan, which Seoul attributed to a torpedo assault by North Korea despite the North’s denial.

Yoon committed to bolster South Korea’s own missile attack and defense capabilities.

As well as to increase security cooperation with the United States and Japan in order to confront the North’s developing nuclear arsenal after reading out the names of each of the 55 soldiers during the ceremony at a national cemetery in Daejeon.

Yoon stated, “(We) will ensure that North Korea unquestionably pays a price for its careless provocations.

In an effort to diversify its delivery systems and demonstrate a dual capability to launch nuclear attacks on both South Korea and the U.S. mainland, the North has launched more than 20 ballistic and cruise missiles over ten separate launch occasions this year.

With over 70 missiles fired in 2022, North Korea is coming off a record year for testing activity as Kim accelerated a campaign to persuade the United States to accept the North’s status as a nuclear power and negotiate the lifting of much-needed sanctions from a position of strength.

In response, South Korea and the US have increased their joint military drills, which were scaled back in prior years.

According to Seoul’s Defense Ministry, South Korea and the United States are preparing to undertake a live-fire drill in June that will be “unprecedented” in scope.

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