The submarine launch came shortly after the original announcement of South Korea’s THAAD defense system and the US placing even stricter sanctions on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for alleged human rights abuses. About 28,500 US soldiers are stationed in South Korea to deter possible aggression from North Korea; tens of thousands more are stationed in Japan.
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Tuesday’s drill simulated detonating “nuclear warheads mounted on the ballistic rockets at the designated altitude over the target area”, KCNA said.
The US and South Korea have not yet announced the location and time of the installation for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAD) system, though North Korea has said it will retaliate as soon as they do.
North Korea has been hit by five sets of United Nations sanctions since it first tested an atomic device in 2006.
The U.S. military said it detected launches of what it believed were two Scud missiles and one Rodong, a home-grown missile based on Soviet-era Scud technology.
Choi Kang, a researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said, “If the THAAD battery is useless against North Korea’s missile threat, the North would have no reason to react so sensitively”.
Three ballistic missiles launched by North Korea Tuesday into the Sea of Japan off of South Korea’s eastern coast wasn’t just an arbitrary exercise, the Washington Post reports.
On July 8, following a series of North Korean ballistic missile tests, the US and South Korea announced that a THAAD battery would be deployed to Seongju by the end of 2017.
Tensions have been flaring in the region since January, when North Korea said it had successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb, its fourth nuclear test, and vowed to build up its nuclear program as deterrence against potential aggression from the United States and its regional allies.
“(North Korean) numbers broadcasts have been on hold for quite some time but have recently resumed, something we think is very regrettable”, Jeong Joon-hee, a spokesman for South Korea’s unification ministry, told a media briefing on Wednesday.
The country is also pushing to develop a long-range nuclear-tipped missile that can strike the mainland USA, but South Korean defense officials believe the North does not possess such a weapon.
A TV screen shows a file footage of the missile launch conducted by North Korea, at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, March 10, 2016.
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“We know how valuable THAAD is on Guam and this deployment will complement the battery permanently stationed on our island”, Bordallo said, upon the disclosure by USA and South Korean officials.
