North Korea has pledged to ‘mercilessly punish’ the United States as it conducts the largest military exercises with South Korea in the last five years.
North Korea also tested two strategic cruise missiles a day earlier.
State-run media reported on Monday that North Korea had launched two “strategic cruise missiles” from a submarine, just hours before South Korea and the US began their biggest joint military exercises in five years.
The nuclear-armed North reportedly stated in the official report that the “underwater launching drill” had “proven the reliability” of the weapons and identified the submarine-launched missiles as a part of its “nuclear deterrence.” Pyongyang claimed that the two strategic cruise missiles “precisely hit” their intended targets in the Sea of Japan after traveling 1,500 kilometers along figure-eight-shaped flight trajectories for more than two hours. Such a distance would put almost the entire country of Japan, along with important U.S. military locations, within striking distance.
North Korea claimed last month that it had fired four Hwasal-2 strategic cruise missiles into the air, “clearly demonstrating… the war stance of the DPRK nuclear battle force, building up in every manner its lethal nuclear counterattack capability.”
Prior to the North Korean claim, the South Korean military said on Monday that it had discovered an unidentified missile launched from a submarine on Sunday morning in the waters around Sinpo, on the North’s eastern coast. A South Korean military official later in the day described the launch as an “early-stage” test, claiming that there was a “difference” between the North’s claim about the missile’s information as well as the analyses performed by Seoul and the US. This statement may have been a hint that the military believes the results may have been exaggerated and that the missile has not yet been deployed.
Hirokazu Matsuno, the chief cabinet secretary and the government’s top spokesman, stated in Tokyo on Monday that there was no information indicating that the missiles had flown close to Japanese waters. However, he added that if the North Korean claim that the weapons had traveled about 1,500 kilometers were accurate, it would “threaten peace and stability in the region.”
The United States’ decision to hold an informal meeting later this week to discuss North Korea’s human rights record has been condemned by the North Korean Foreign Ministry, which also denounced the drills. The North Korean populace is ready to mercilessly chastise the U.S. imperialists who completely defy the sovereignty of our state and its socialist system and therefore make them pay dearly without fail,” according to a statement from the country’s foreign ministry.
The North has switched from testing its potent weapons to conducting maneuvers that show the nation might take “real action rather than rhetoric,” as evidenced by Sunday’s submarine-launched missile exercises.
Tensions over the North’s nuclear and missile programs rose in 2022 as it launched a record number of missiles in response to requests from the US and its allies to resume disarmament talks. Experts predict that this year may prove to be even more dangerous because there are already indications that Kim is still determined to carry out his promise to accumulate an “exponential” number of nuclear weapons for his nation. This promise has left little room for the possibility of restarting denuclearization negotiations.
The majority of North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) arsenal consists of warheads that use liquid fuel, demanding their refueling at launch locations, a costly operation that exposes them to pre-emptive strikes. Yet, since they wouldn’t need to be refueled, solid-fueled ICBMs would be quicker to deploy and more difficult to detect and shoot down.
A new solid-fueled long-range missile that the North showcased at a military parade last month might be put to the test.
