North Korea has conducted a simulated “scorched-earth” nuclear strike on targets across South Korea, state media reported on Thursday.
The simulated strike came in reaction to allied exercises that it said amounted to plans for a pre-emptive nuclear attack by the United States.
Key points:
- North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea
- South Korea and the US were wrapping up 11 days of combined military drills
- Kim Jong Un has urged his military to step up war preparedness
The state media reports spelled out in unusual detail how the North envisions a potential war, including countering any attack by striking the South with nuclear weapons, then sweeping in to occupy its territory.
“The KPA (Korean People’s Army) staged a tactical nuclear strike drill simulating scorched-earth strikes at major command centres and operational airfields of the ‘ROK’ (Republic of Korea) military gangsters on Wednesday night,” the general staff of the North’s KPA said in a statement carried by KCNA news agency.
North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Wednesday, South Korea’s military said, hours after the US deployed B-1B bombers for allied air drills.
South Korea’s presidential office convened a security meeting after North Korea’s late-night launch, which followed its second failed attempt last week to put its first spy satellite into orbit.
“These conducts pose threats to peace and stability of not only our country, but of the region and international community, and cannot be tolerated,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said.
Japan will intercept North Korea’s missiles if they fly over Japan’s territory, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said.
Pyongyang has vowed to try launching a satellite again in October. The United States, South Korea and Japan have condemned the space launch as a provocation and violation of UN Security Council resolutions banning the North’s use of ballistic missile technology.
Military drills
The launches came a day before South Korea and the US were set to wrap up 11 days of combined military drills, which Pyongyang had long denounced as a war rehearsal.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday observed part of a drill that involved the commanding officers and staff sections of the entire army, aimed at preparing them for an all-out war with the South, KCNA reported.
The drill simulated repelling a sudden invasion, then launching a counter-attack to occupy “the whole territory of the southern half”, the report said.
North Korea also tested a Hwasong-18 ballistic missile last month. Officials said the missile flew for 74 minutes and 1,001 kilometres.
The simulation included frontline and strategic reserve artillery forces forming a front behind the enemy lines, disrupting the entrance of “outside armed forces” into the conflict.
It also included “making simultaneous super-intense strikes at the pivotal military command centres, military ports, operational airfields and other important enemy military targets,” KCNA said.
“We strongly condemn Kim Jong Un explicitly revealing his intention for a military attack on us using the annual defensive South Korea-US combined drills as a pretext,” Seoul’s unification ministry handling inter-Korean affairs said in a statement.
Mr Kim has urged his military to step up war preparedness, criticising leaders of the US, South Korea and Japan as “gang bosses” who are increasing the risk of a nuclear war in the region.
Japan’s defence ministry said the North’s first missile reached an altitude of 50km and flew 350km, while the second rose a similar height and flew 400km.
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