North Korea must be ready to launch nuclear counter strikes at any time to deter war, president Kim Jong Un said on Monday March 20, as he accused the United States and South Korea of conducting joint military drills near the country’s doorstep.
Kim’s remarks come after “guiding” combined tactical drills of operational units simulating a nuclear counterattack against North Korea’s enemies over the weekend, which he described as having “greatly improved the actual war capability of the units,” according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The state media said a North Korean ballistic missile equipped with a mock nuclear warhead that was launched on Sunday, March 19 flew about 800 kilometers (500 miles) before hitting a target at an altitude of 800 meters (0.5 miles) under the scenario of a tactical nuclear attack.
The military drills allowed North Korean troops to become “familiar with any unexpected circumstances and make them more perfectly prepared in their active posture of making an immediate and overwhelming nuclear counterattack [at] anytime,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying.
Kim, appeared in images alongside his daughter, Kim Ju Ae.
He said it was “very important to continuously organize and conduct such drills under the simulated conditions of an actual war.”
Ju Ae, who is believed to be around 9 years old, has been repeatedly photographed alongside her father at missile launches in recent months.
The joint drills conducted by the US and North Korea featured US B-1B strategic bombers, F-35A stealth fighters from the South Korean Air Force and F-16 fighters of the US Air Force.
Kim accused the US and South Korea of expanding joint military drills involving American nuclear assets and claimed that his enemies are getting “ever more pronounced in their moves for aggression,” which prompted his call for North Korea to “bolster up its nuclear war deterrence exponentially,” KCNA said.
“The drill marked an important occasion in preparing our nuclear combat force to rapidly and accurately perform its crucial mission of war deterrence and securing war initiative any moment and under any unexpected circumstances,” state media quoted Kim as saying.