Kim oversees nuclear weapons unit drills
Seoul, Oct 10 (EFE).- North Korea’s leader oversaw the military drills of a tactical nuclear weapons unit to “check and assess the war deterrent and nuclear counterattack capability” of the country, state media reported Monday.
The drills were carried out by Pyongyang between Sep. 25 and Oct. 9, state news agency KCNA said Monday.
These were prompted by the arrival in the area of Washington’s USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and its strike group to participate in joint maneuvers with South Korea and Japan.
“Under such inevitable circumstances, the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea (…) decided to organize military drills under the simulation of an actual war at different levels in order to check and improve the reliability and combat power of our state war deterrence and send a strong military reaction warning to the enemies,” KCNA reported.
According to the state outlet, Kim Jong-un “guided the military drills on the spot” during the exercise, which included a simulated launch of ballistic missiles under the simulated loading of tactical nuclear warheads.
“The drill was aimed at confirming the order of taking tactical nuclear warheads out and transporting them and of managing them in a rapid and safe way at the time of operation, checking the reliability of the overall management system, making the units acquire launching capabilities of the ballistic missile at the underwater silos and inspecting their rapid response posture,” the text said.
North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan during the early hours of Sunday morning (1.47 am and 1.53 am local time), the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff announced.
They traveled about 350 kilometers and reached an altitude of about 100 km, landing in waters outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
Sunday’s launch comes after Pyongyang fired two short-range missiles on Oct. 6. This was the 25th test by North Korea so far this year and the seventh in the last two weeks. EFE
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