North Korea: Pyongyang continues to build up “overwhelming military power”

In North Korea, the mono-military theme of the leaders does not change. As Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the country’s first military exercise simulating a “nuclear trigger,” his sister, considered his equal successor with daughter Ju Ae, said Tuesday the country will continue to forge its military path.

The United States and South Korea have conducted a series of large-scale exercises in recent months, part of a commitment by the two countries’ leaders to improve their military preparedness against military threats from North Korea. Pyongyang says that the US military exercises are preparation for a nuclear war against it, in particular, in particular, about a hundred combat aircraft will be involved in the annual US-South Korean exercises, which will take place this year from April 12 to 26 at the Kunsan base in South Korea.

These maneuvers, carried out with the participation of “South Korean puppet war gangsters,” are plunging the region into dangerous unrest, Kim Yo Jong warned on Tuesday, according to the official KCNA news agency. Adding: “We will continue to build overwhelming and powerful military power to protect our sovereignty, security and regional peace.”

The day before, his brother observed for the first time the use of the Haekbangashu nuclear trigger system, the country’s combined nuclear weapons control system, KCNA reported. On Monday, the South Korean army announced it had fired a salvo of short-range ballistic missiles, which Japan confirmed. According to Seoul, the missiles were launched from the Pyongyang area and landed in waters east of the Korean Peninsula. Kim Jong Un “conducted a combined tactical exercise simulating a nuclear counterattack using very large multiple launch rocket systems,” KCNA subsequently reported. According to the agency, the projectiles, “equipped with imitation nuclear warheads,” hit a target located 352 km from the launch point on the island.

Test of a “very large warhead”

The exercise tested “the reliability of the command, control, control and operation system of all nuclear forces” and ensured that very large multiple launch rocket systems were capable of going into nuclear counterattack mode, KCNA detailed.

Since conducting its first nuclear test more than a decade ago, and despite increased UN sanctions several times, North Korea has improved its military capabilities, seeking to miniaturize the warhead so it can adapt to long-range missiles. . Kim Jong Un stepped up those efforts in 2022, vowing to develop nuclear weapons at the “maximum possible pace” and banning any talk of denuclearization. Following a record-breaking missile test in 2023, North Korea has carried out several launches since the beginning of the year. The North Korean regime, in particular, announced in early April that it had tested a new medium- and long-range solid-fuel hypersonic missile. On Friday, he announced the test of a “very large warhead” designed for a strategic cruise missile.

At the end of March, Russia vetoed a draft resolution in the Security Council to extend for one year the mandate of the committee of experts responsible for monitoring the application of these sanctions. Washington and Seoul accuse Pyongyang of supplying weapons to Moscow in exchange for military technology. North Korea has sent about 7,000 containers of weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine, possibly in exchange for technical assistance in a spy satellite program, according to Seoul.

North Korea will move closer to another internationally contested state, with an official delegation currently in Iran to strengthen relations between the two countries. The delegation is led by North Korea’s Foreign Economic Relations Minister Yoon Chung-ho and poses the questions at a time when the Islamic Republic has entered into open confrontation with Israel. Tehran and Pyongyang already cooperated on weapons programs back in the 1980s.