According to the official North Korean news agency, Kim Jong-un supervised his new trials. The missiles traveled about 2,000 kilometers.
Source AFP
© STR / KCNA VIA KNS / AFP
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LNorth Korea has tested two long-range strategic cruise missiles, with leader Kim Jong Un hailing another successful demonstration of the country’s tactical nuclear strike capability, the official KCNA news agency reported on Thursday (October 13th). The latest test comes in a record slew of weapons tests this year that have heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula and heightened fears that Pyongyang could carry out its first nuclear test since 2017.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un personally supervised Wednesday’s missile launches, which traveled 2,000 kilometers over the sea, the KCNA said. She added that the projectiles hit their intended targets, without giving further details.
Kim Jong Un expressed his “great satisfaction” with the tests, which were aimed at enhancing the combat effectiveness of the missiles “deployed in Korean People’s Army units for the operation of tactical nuclear weapons”. reports the KCNA. Pyongyang said this week that its recent missile tests were “tactical nuclear” exercises aimed at simulating a strike on the south. Kim “highly appreciated the high response capabilities of our nuclear combat forces”, the agency reported.
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Nuclear, Pyongyang’s top priority
After Wednesday’s tests, the North Korean leader stressed that his country should “expand the operational sphere of strategic nuclear armed forces”, according to KCNA. “Kim Jong Un stressed that we should focus all our efforts on the continuous and accelerated development of national combat nuclear armed forces,” the agency added.
Kim made the acquisition of tactical nuclear weapons – smaller, lighter weapons designed for use on the battlefield – a top priority at a key Party convention in January 2021. He pledged this year to develop North Korean nuclear forces as quickly as possible.
Last month, the reclusive country revised its nuclear doctrine to allow for preemptive strikes. In addition, Kim Jong-un declared North Korea an “irreversible” nuclear power, which ended any possibility of negotiation over its arsenal. Since then, Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have stepped up their combined military drills, including twice deploying a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to the region, provoking the ire of Pyongyang, which consistently denounces the drills as rehearsals of invasion.
In response, the North staged “real war” maneuvers, simulating strikes against South Korea’s ports, airports and military command facilities, KCNA reported on Monday. North Korean army units ‘responsible for the use of tactical nuclear weapons held military exercises from September 25 to October 9 to test and evaluate the country’s nuclear deterrence and counterattack capability’ , the agency said. These exercises were also supervised by Kim Jong Un, according to state media.
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KCNA also claimed that the North Korean projectile that flew over Japan on October 4 was a “new type of intermediate-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile”. KCNA’s statements about its recent tests – which are unusual, with state media no longer routinely commenting on launches – seem to indicate that Pyongyang is worried about recent joint exercises led by the United States, analysts said.