'Strategic cruise missile' launches demonstrate nuclear 'war posture': North Korea

North Korea

Published: 24 Feb. 2023, 11:31 Updated: 24 Feb. 2023, 13:36

'Strategic cruise missile' launches demonstrate nuclear 'war posture': North Korea

North Korea claims it launched four strategic cruise missiles from Kim Chaek City in North Hamgyong Province as part of a drill early Thursday, in an image provided by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) Friday. [YONHAP]

North Korea claimed Friday it conducted a "strategic cruise missile" launch drill Thursday, demonstrating the "war posture" of its nuclear combat forces.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Friday that a missile unit of the North Korean People's Army fired four "Hwasal-2" strategic cruise missiles from Kim Chaek City in North Hamgyong Province towards the East Sea early Thursday.

The KCNA's English-language report claimed that the four strategic cruise missiles "precisely hit" the preset target in the East Sea after flying 2,000 kilometers in "long elliptical and eight-shaped flight orbits" for 10,208 second to 10,224 seconds.

It added that the launching drill "successfully achieved its object."

The drill confirmed the "reliability" of the weapons system and "examined the rapid response posture of strategic cruise missile units that constitute one of major forces of the DPRK nuclear deterrent," the report added, referring to the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"The drill clearly demonstrated once again the war posture of the DPRK nuclear combat force bolstering up in every way its deadly nuclear counterattack capability against the hostile forces," it added.

South Korea's military said Friday it was analyzing "various possibilities" related to the North's claimed launches.

"South Korean and U.S. reconnaissance and surveillance assets were closely monitoring the relevant area at the time claimed by the North," said the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff in a statement, referring to Pyongyang's claims it conducted a strategic cruise missile drill. "An analysis is underway on various possibilities, including whether the North's claim is true or not."

This could mean that the North's strategic cruise missiles, which are difficult to track, were not detected by the allies' military reconnaissance and surveillance assets.

On Wednesday, Seoul and Washington conducted a tabletop exercise at the Pentagon to counter North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.

Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokesperson, confirmed in a press briefing in Washington on Wednesday that the allies staged the eighth Deterrence Strategy Committee Table-Top Exercise (TTX) that day.

The U.S. Defense Department said that Heo Tae-keun, Seoul's deputy minister of defense policy, headed the South Korean delegation and Siddharth Mohandas, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, and Richard Johnson, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and countering weapons of mass destruction policy, co-chaired the U.S. delegation.

The Pentagon said that the TTX scenario focused on the possible use of nuclear weapons by the North, and that the two sides discussed various options to demonstrate the alliance's "strong response capabilities and resolve to respond appropriately to any DPRK nuclear use."

South Korea, the United States and Japan also held a trilateral missile defense exercise in the international waters of the East Sea Wednesday, mobilizing three Aegis-equipped destroyers, after the North's testing of two short-range ballistic missiles and a Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the past week.

Later Friday, the North Korean Foreign Ministry warned the United States that “if it persists in its hostile and provocative practices,” it will be regarded as a “declaration of war against the DPRK.”

Kwon Jong-gun, director general of the Department of U.S. Affairs of the North’s Foreign Ministry, issued an English-language statement carried by the KCNA which described the UN Security Council as a “tool of the U.S. for putting pressure on the DPRK.” He warned that “corresponding strong countermeasure will be taken” if the council questions its right to “self-defense” again.

Kwon said that the only way to prevent the “vicious cycle of escalating military tension in the Korean peninsula and its surrounding area is for the U.S. to show a clear and practical stand such as abandonment of its commitment to deploying strategic assets in south Korea” and put a “halt to the combined drills against the DPRK under various codenames.”

He said that the United States and South Korea are “planning to visit a U.S. nuclear submarine base in the wake of staging a ‘drill for operating extended deterrence means,’” which he described as a “nuclear war demonstration against the DPRK.”

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]