The South Korean and US militaries yesterday launched their biggest joint military exercises in years, as North Korea said it tested submarine-launched cruise missiles in an apparent protest of the drills it views as an invasion rehearsal.
North Korea’s launches on Sunday signal that the country would likely conduct provocative weapons testing during the US-South Korean drills that are to run for 11 days. Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered his troops to be ready to repel its rivals’ “frantic war preparation moves.”
The South Korean-US drills include a computer simulation called Freedom Shield 23 and several combined field training exercises, collectively known as the Warrior Shield FTX.
Photo: EPA-EFE via the Korean Central News Agency
The South Korean and US militaries said earlier that the computer simulation is designed to enhance the allies’ defense and response capabilities amid North Korea’s increasing nuclear threats and other changing security environments.
They said the field exercises would also return to the scale of their earlier largest field training called Foal Eagle that was last held in 2018.
A recent US military statement said the field exercises are to further enhance the two militaries’ “cooperation through air, land, sea, space, cyber and special operations, and improve upon tactics, techniques and procedures.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
North Korea said through state media that its launches of two cruise missiles from a submarine off its east coast showed its resolve to respond with “overwhelming powerful” force to the intensifying military maneuvers by “the US imperialists and the South Korean puppet forces.”
The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) called the missiles “strategic” weapons and said their launches verified the operation posture of the country’s “nuclear war deterrence.”
This implied that North Korea intends to arm the cruise missiles with nuclear warheads.
It said the missiles flew for more than two hours, drawing figure-eight-shaped patterns and demonstrating an ability to hit targets 1,500km away.
The missiles were fired from the 8.24 Yongung submarine, KCNA said, referencing the vessel that North Korea used to conduct its first submarine-launched ballistic missile test in 2016.
The reported launch details show that Japan, including US military bases in Okinawa, is within striking distance of the cruise missiles, if they are fired from North Korea’s eastern waters, said Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
He added the weapons could reach even the US Pacific territory of Guam if a North Korean submarine can operate further from its shore.
North Korea’s command of submarine-launched missile systems would make it harder for adversaries to detect launches in advance and would provide Pyongyang with retaliatory attack capability.
Experts say it would take years, extensive resources and major technological improvements for the heavily sanctioned nation to build a fleet of several submarines that could travel quietly in seas and reliably execute strikes.
Sunday’s tests were North Korea’s first known launches of cruise missiles from a submarine, as its previous underwater launches all involved ballistic missiles. It is also the first time for North Korea to fire multiple missiles from a submarine in a single launch event, observers said.
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