The latest in Pyongyang’s series of tests this year, the rehearsal modeled a “nuclear counterattack,” and was overseen by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the state-run KCNA news agency reported on Tuesday.
The report states that Monday was the day of the practice. Tokyo confirmed the North’s launch of multiple short-range ballistic missiles on Monday, which Seoul’s military had earlier claimed.
Kim “guided a combined tactical drill simulating a nuclear counterattack involving super-large multiple rocket artillerymen,” the report said.
The rockets “hit their island target” some 352 kilometres (219 miles) away, it continued, describing Kim as “expressing great satisfaction.”
The military of South Korea reported on Monday that missiles launched from the Pyongyang region traveled roughly 300 kilometers before exploding in the waters to the east of the Korean peninsula.
The launch was seen as a “blatant provocation.”
A government spokesman in Tokyo verified the launch as well, stating that one missile reached a maximum height of 50 kilometers and touched down outside of the nation’s exclusive economic zone.
Pyongyang conducted its second launch in less than a week on Friday, testing a “super-large warhead” intended for a strategic cruise missile, according to official media. The military in Seoul at the moment confirmed that it had seen cruise missile launches.
The launch follows Moscow, an ally of Pyongyang, essentially ending UN monitoring of sanctions violations against Kim’s government for its nuclear and weapons development in March by using its veto power in the UN Security Council.
Experts have cautioned that North Korea might be conducting trials for cruise missiles before transferring them to Russia for deployment in Ukraine. Washington and Seoul assert that Kim has already sent weapons to Moscow, even though UN sanctions prohibit such actions.
According to Seoul, Pyongyang has shipped over 7,000 weapons-filled containers to Moscow for use in the Ukraine.
The mainly remote nation congratulated Russia this month for its UN veto and recently strengthened military ties with Moscow.
It has also increased testing, saying that it tested a new medium-to-long-range solid-fuel hypersonic missile in early April.
According to Hong Min, senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, Pyongyang is attempting to push its technological capabilities based on its recent launch record.
The launch on Monday “appears to be a part of its weapons development programme that needs testing rather than ones that are fully developed,” according to him.
In spite of warnings from Seoul and Washington as well as UN sanctions in effect since 2006, the North fired a record number of missile tests last year.
In 2022, Pyongyang proclaimed itself a state with “irreversible” nuclear weapons.
