North Korea said on Thursday it had launched two short-range ballistic missiles, and explained that it was conducting a “tactical nuclear strike exercise” in response to joint Seoul-US maneuvers.
The missiles were fired on Wednesday in a “simulation of a tactical nuclear strike aimed at completely destroying South Korea’s main command centers and air bases”, This is reported by the North Korean state news agency KCNA.
“The exercise aims to send a clear message to enemies,” the North Korean military said, quoted by KCNA.
The launch of the two missiles, which fell into the Sea of Japan, was facilitated by military sources in South Korea and Japan.
Japan’s Defense Ministry said the first missile was “launched around 11:38 p.m [15:38 em Lisboa]at a maximum altitude of about 50 kilometers (km) and a flight distance of about 350 km”.
The second launch took place eight minutes later, with the missile reaching “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 strategic B-1 bomber to participate in 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 that it would conduct a military exercise overseen by its leader, Kim Jong-un, in response to the UFS.
Kim “familiarized himself with the plan for the exercise, which aims to occupy the entire territory of the southern half [da península]repelling the enemy’s sudden armed invasion and moving toward an all-out counterattack,” said KCNA.
The exercise simulated “simultaneous attacks on key military command centers, military ports, operational air bases and other key enemy military targets and nerve centers, the destruction of which could lead to socio-political and economic chaos,” the agency said.
Following the breakdown of the 2019 denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang, the peninsula has once again become the scene of an ongoing military escalation, with the Kim Jong-un regime repeatedly testing missiles and its allies conducting major war exercises and regularly targeting US strategic assets. brought.
Source: DN
