South Korea

• Kim Jong Un  accused the US and South Korea of escalating joint military manoeuvres.
• North Korea revealed their nuclear retaliation simulation on the same day.
• The drills allowed North Korean troops to become familiar with any unexpected circumstances.

North Korea must be ready to launch nuclear counter-attacks at any time to avert war, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Monday, accusing the US and South Korea of escalating joint military manoeuvres along the country’s border.

Kim’s words came after a weekend of “guiding” joint tactical drills of operational units simulating a nuclear counterattack against North Korea’s foes, which he described as “greatly improving the actual fighting capacity of the units,” according to the sources.

State media said a North Korean ballistic missile equipped with a mock nuclear warhead that was launched on Sunday flew about 800 kilometers (500 miles) before hitting a target at an altitude of 800 meters (0.5 miles) under the scenario of a tactical nuclear attack.

The drills allowed North Korean troops to become “familiar with any unexpected circumstances and make them more perfectly prepared in their active posture of making an immediate and overwhelming nuclear counterattack [at] anytime,” sources quoted Kim as saying.

Kim, who appeared in state-run media images alongside his daughter, Kim Ju Ae, said it was “very important to continuously organize and conduct such drills under the simulated conditions of an actual war.”

Ju Ae, who is thought to be around 9 years old, has been spotted numerous times with her father at missile launches in recent months.

Since Kim Il Sung’s foundation in 1948, North Korea has been administered as a hereditary dictatorship. Kim Jong Il, his son, seized command after his father died in 1994. After Kim Jong Il died, Kim Jong Un ascended to power.

North Korea revealed their nuclear retaliation simulation on the same day that US strategic bombers took part in joint air drills with South Korean forces as part of “Freedom Shield,” the two nations’ greatest combined military exercises.

The collaborative exercises included US B-1B strategic bombers, South Korean Air Force F-35A stealth aircraft, and US Air Force F-16 fighters.

In response to the combined US-South Korean war drills, North Korea increased missile launches, firing submarine missiles ahead of the exercises.

Kim accused the US and South Korea of expanding joint military drills involving American nuclear assets and claimed that his adversaries’ moves towards aggression are becoming “ever more pronounced,” prompting his call for North Korea to “increase its nuclear war deterrence exponentially,” according to sources.

North Korea’s two-day nuclear counterattack drill was divided into two parts: one for managing the nuclear strike control system, which included training to assume a “nuclear counterattack posture,” and another for “launching tactical ballistic missile tipped with a mock nuclear warhead,” according to sources.

“The drill marked an important occasion in preparing our nuclear combat force to rapidly and accurately perform its crucial mission of war deterrence and securing war initiative any moment and under any unexpected circumstances,” state media quoted Kim as saying.

Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies and former South Korean navy commander, said North Korea’s latest exercises appeared to be “quite specific and sophisticated” compared to the spate of tests it conducted in September and October last year.

“This shows that North Korea is developing its nuclear strategy, nuclear operation doctrine, and nuclear command system,” he said.

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