North Korea confirmed on Monday that the recently launched missiles were combat tactical nuclear tests to "hit and annihilate" potential South Korean and US targets, according to state media.
“Through seven launch drills of the tactical nuclear operations units, the real war capabilities of the nuclear combat forces, ready to hit and annihilate the fixed objects anywhere and at any time, were shown to the maximum,” the Central Agency explained. Korea News, North official.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in this image released by the regime on Oct. 10, 2022, monitors the launch of a missile fired between Sept. 25 and Oct. 9, 2022. AP
The announcement, which coincided with the 77th anniversary of the ruling Workers' Party, is seen as an attempt to bolster the image of its leader, Kim Jong-un, who is seeking to expand his weapons arsenal to obtain greater concessions in future negotiations on sanctions in against the regime for its nuclear program.
The KCNA news agency said the missile tests were a response to recent joint US-South Korea naval exercises in which the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan took part for the first time in five years.
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Considering such exercises a military threat, North Korea decided to stage "the simulation of a real war" to test and improve its war deterrence capacity and send a warning to its enemies, the KCNA stressed.
The launches - all overseen by Kim - included a nuclear-capable ballistic missile launched under a reservoir in the country's northeast;
other ballistic missiles designed to launch nuclear strikes against South Korean airfields, ports and command facilities;
and a new-type surface-to-surface ballistic missile that flew over Japan, KCNA reported.
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North Korea also tested 150 warplanes for separate live-fire and other exercises in the country's first such training.
Cheong Seong-Chang, of South Korea's private Sejong Institute, said the launches were the first time North Korea had conducted exercises with army units tasked with handling tactical nuclear weapons.
The public launch of a missile from an inland reservoir was also the first of its kind, although
it had already conducted missile tests from a submarine.
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Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, explained that North Korea probably wants to diversify launch sites to make it harder for its enemies to detect its missile launches in advance and carry out preemptive strikes.
Professor Kim said the flight of the missile, whose trajectory is estimated at some 370 miles, indicated that the launch could be a test explosion of a nuclear weapon over the South Korean port city of Busan, where the US aircraft carrier had previously docked.
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North Korea described the missile that flew over Japan as a new-type intermediate-range weapon that could travel some 2,800 miles.
Some foreign experts earlier pointed out that the missile was probably North Korea's nuclear-capable Hwasong-12, which can reach the US Pacific island of Guam.
But Professor Kim, however,
pointed out that the tested weapon appeared to be an upgraded version of the Hwasong-12
with a target as far away as Alaska or Hawaii.
Concerns about North Korea's nuclear program have intensified in recent months, as the country passed a new law authorizing the preventive use of its bombs in certain cases and reportedly moved to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to along its border with South Korea.
So far this year, North Korea has launched more than 40 missiles.