Pyongyang fires ballistic missiles to protest S. Korea-US drill
North Korea said Thursday it launched two ballistic missiles Wednesday night as part of a tactical nuclear strike drill in response to a joint South Korea-US aerial exercise, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
The General Staff said the tactical nuclear-armed unit of the Korean People’s Army fired two tactical ballistic missiles northeastward at Pyongyang International Airport and correctly carried out its nuclear strike mission through air bursts at a preset altitude of 400 meters above the target island, according to the report.
The North slammed a combined air exercise between South Korea and the US involving a US B-1B strategic bomber over the peninsula as part of the allies’ ongoing Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, which began on Aug. 21 and is set to end Thursday, describing it a “serious threat” to the country. “To cope with this, the Korean People’s Army staged a tactical nuclear strike drill simulating scorched earth strikes at major command centers and operational airfields of the “ROK” (South Korea) military gangsters on Wednesday night,” it said, referring to the firing of two short-range ballistic missiles toward waters off its east coast.
Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the missiles from the Sunan area in Pyongyang between around 11:40 p.m. (1440 GMT) and 11:50 p.m. Wednesday, which flew about 360 km before falling into the East Sea (Sea of Japan).
The drill is aimed to send a “clear message” to the enemies and make them clearly realize once again the North’s “resolute punitive will and substantive retaliation capabilities,” the General Staff warned. “The Korean People’s Army will never overlook the rash acts of the U.S. forces and the “ROK” military gangsters,” it added.
The KCNA also said in a separate dispatch that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited the training command post of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army and received a briefing on the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise on Tuesday.
Kim stressed the need to pay the greatest attention to making the enemy dispirited, throwing their combat action into confusion and paralyzing their will and ability to fight a war from the outset by dealing heavy blows at their war potential and war command center and blinding their means of command communication at the initial stage of operation, the report said.
Source: Kuwait News Agency