North Korea said on Thursday it had launched two short-range ballistic missiles, explaining that it had carried out a “simulated tactical nuclear strike” in response to joint exercises by Seoul and the United States.
The missiles were fired on Wednesday in a “simulation of a tactical nuclear strike aimed at completely destroying major command centers and air bases” in South Korea, according to North Korea’s state news agency KCNA.
“The exercise is intended to send a clear message to the enemies,” the North Korean military was quoted as saying by KCNA.
The launch of the two missiles, which fell into the Sea of Japan, had been anticipated by military sources in South Korea and Japan.
Japan’s Defense Ministry said the first missile “was launched around 23:38 [15:38 em Lisboa]at a maximum altitude of approximately 50 kilometers (km) and a flight distance of approximately 350 km”.
The second launch took place eight minutes later, and the missile reached “a maximum altitude of about 50 km and a flight distance of about 400 km,” according to the Japanese military.
Both missiles landed near the east coast of the Korean peninsula and outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, Tokyo said.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the launches were being reviewed by South Korean and US military officials.
The launches came hours after Washington deployed a B-1 strategic bomber to take part in the large-scale joint Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercises.
Pyongyang warned last week that carrying out such maneuvers could eventually lead to “thermonuclear war.”
North Korea had already announced on Tuesday the holding of a military exercise supervised by its leader, Kim Jong-un, in response to the UFS.
Kim “familiarized himself with the plan of the exercise, the goal of which is to occupy the entire territory of the southern half [da península]repelling the enemy’s sudden armed invasion and moving towards an all-out counterattack,” KCNA said.
The exercise simulated “simultaneous strikes against major military command centers, military ports, operational airbases, and other major enemy military targets and nerve centers, the destruction of which could lead to sociopolitical and economic chaos,” the agency said.
Following the failure of denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang in 2019, the peninsula has once again become the scene of persistent military escalation, with Kim Jong-un’s regime repeatedly testing missiles and its allies conducting major war exercises and highlighting periodically US strategic assets.
Source: TSF
