(CNN) — North Korean state media have broken their silence on the country’s recent series of missile tests, claiming they were part of a series of mock procedures intended to demonstrate its readiness to fire tactical nuclear warheads at potential targets in South Korea.
Kim Jong Un’s regime has tested ballistic missiles seven times since September 25, the last of 25 cruise and ballistic missile launch events this year, according to a CNN count, raising tensions to their highest level since. 2017.
A North Korean missile test is shown in an image released by state media on Monday.
Citing leader Kim Jong Un, who oversaw the drills, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the tests, which coincided with close military exercises between the United States, South Korea and Japan, showed Pyongyang was ready to respond to regional tensions by involving its “enormous armed forces”.
KCNA said the series of seven drills by North Korea’s “tactical nuclear operations units” showed that its “nuclear combat forces” are “fully ready to attack and destroy the established objects in the designated places in the established time.” .
Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program and a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, said North Korea’s announcements on Monday indicated potential progress on its missile program.
“What I find remarkable is that these launches are not framed as tests of the missiles themselves, but of the units that launch them. That suggests these systems are deployed,” Lewis said on Twitter.
What was North Korea testing?
KCNA said on September 25 that North Korean workers participated in exercises inside a silo under a warehouse to practice what it described as loading tactical nuclear warheads to verify the safe and rapid transportation of nuclear weapons.
North Korea launching a missile is seen in a photo released by state media on Monday.
Three days later, they simulated loading a tactical nuclear warhead onto a missile that would be used in the event of war to “neutralize airports in South Korea’s operational zones.”
On Oct. 6, North Korea practiced procedures that might launch a tactical nuclear attack on “enemies’ major military command facilities” and on enemy ports on Sunday, Pyongyang state media said.
Among the key military installations in South Korea is the US Army’s Camp Humphreys, the largest US military installation outside the United States with a population of more than 36,000 US military personnel, civilian workers, contractors, and family members.
Experts say North Korea has likely made some nuclear warheads: “20 to 30 warheads to be delivered primarily by medium-range ballistic missiles,” Hans Kristensen and Matt Korda of the Nuclear Information Project of the Federation of Nuclear Weapons wrote in September. American scientists.
But their ability to accurately detonate them on the battlefield is unproven.
Analysts noted that with Monday’s reports, North Korea broke a six-month silence on its testing program. Before that, an announcement and images of the tests used to be available the next day.
Leif-Eric Easley, an associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said Pyongyang had “multiple motivations” for making an announcement on Monday.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches a military exercise on October 8 in a North Korean state media photo.
As well as providing a “patriotic headline” for domestic consumption on the 77th anniversary of his ruling party, “he is making explicit the nuclear threat behind his recent missile launches,” Easley said.
“The KCNA report may also be a harbinger of an upcoming nuclear test for the type of tactical warhead that would arm the units Kim visited in the field,” he said.
South Korean and US officials have been warning since May that North Korea may be preparing for its first nuclear test since 2017, with satellite images showing activity at its underground nuclear test site.
US response
The KCNA report said the recent exercises, from September 25 to October 9, were designed to send a “strong warning of military reaction to enemies” and to check and improve the country’s combat capabilities.
In the report, Kim called South Korea and the United States “the enemies” and said North Korea does not need to hold talks with them.
Kim further stressed that Pyongyang will closely monitor enemies’ military movements and “strongly take all military countermeasures” if necessary, KCNA stated.
The United States, South Korea and Japan have been active with military exercises during the North’s recent spate of exercises.
A North Korean state media photo released on Monday shows a missile launch.
A US Navy aircraft carrier strike group participated in several days of bilateral and trilateral exercises with South Korean and Japanese units that ended on Saturday, according to a statement from US Navy Task Force 70.
“Our commitment to regional security and the defense of our allies and partners is demonstrated by our flexibility and adaptability in moving this strike group to where it is needed,” said Michael Donnelly, commander of Task Force 70/Strike Group of aircraft carrier 5.
On Sunday, South Korea’s National Security Council “strongly condemned” North Korea’s recent ballistic missile launches and said its military will further strengthen its combined defense and deterrence posture through joint military exercises with the US. US and trilateral security cooperation involving Japan.
Japan’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the security environment around the country was becoming “increasingly severe” and that drills with the US Navy were strengthening the alliance’s ability to respond to threats.