North Korea’s official news agency reported that the exercise, which successfully tested the simulated detonation of nuclear warheads mounted on the missiles was supervised by Kim Jong Un himself.
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The European Union’s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, said missile launches by North Korea on Tuesday were a “clear and grave violation” of Pyongyang’s global obligations.
“He, together with General Kim Rak Gyom, commander of the Strategic Force, and other commanding officers, went round the firing sites to learn about the preparations for ballistic rocket firing”.
According to North Korean state media, Kim Jong Un personally “provided field guidance” for the drill.
Relations have deteriorated greatly since then as North Korea has pursued the development of nuclear weapons despite global sanctions.
The THAAD system can intercept incoming missiles much higher up which gives Seoul an added layer of protection compared to its current Patriot batteries that can only hit rockets closer to the ground. “We urge North Korea to stop this kind of provocation immediately”.
Pyongyang also conducted a test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) in April, calling it a “great success” that provided “one more means for powerful nuclear attack”.
North Korea is pushing to manufacture a warhead small enough to be placed on a long-range missile that can reach the continental USA, but South Korean defense officials say the North doesn’t yet have such a miniaturized warhead. Those two missiles achieved a significant increase in flight distance over previous failed launches and were believed to be of a much-hyped, intermediate-range Musudan missile – theoretically capable of reaching USA bases as far away as Guam, the South’s defence ministry said in June.
Both the United States and South Korea military have clarified if war were to break out on the peninsula US reinforcements would arrive from the USA mainland as well as from neighboring Japan.
The missiles possessed the range to reach any target in South Korea, including Seongju, the mountainous area about 135 miles south of Seoul where the U.S. plans to put its Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. It later reportedly stopped such broadcasts once it could communicate with its spies overseas via the internet, and as animosities with South Korea eased following a historic inter-Korean summit meeting in 2000.
North and South Korea are still technically at war following the 1950-53 Korean War which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
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The launches drew swift condemnation from the United States and Japan, who vowed a coordinated response to Pyongyang’s repeated violations of UN sanctions that bar it from weapons tests. The latest launches came days after the country warned of unspecified “physical counter-action” to counter the South’s anti-missile defense system.
