North Korean leader Kim Jong Un demanded his country to be prepared to launch nuclear attacks at any time in order to prevent war, accusing the United States and South Korea of increasing joint military drills involving American nuclear assets, said state media KCNA on Monday (March, 20).
Kim's remarks came as the isolated country conducted what KCNA called exercises aimed at bolstering its "war deterrence and nuclear counterattack capability" on Saturday and Sunday to send strong warnings against the allies.
According to KCNA, in the exercises, a ballistic missile carrying a dummy nuclear warhead traveled 800 kilometers (497 miles) before striking a target at a height of 800 meters under the scenario of a tactical nucelar attack.
Kim, who supervised the test, said that the exercises enhanced the military's actual capacity for war and emphasized the necessity of maintaining such readiness for any "immediate and overwhelming nuclear counterattack" through such exercises.
"The present situation, in which the enemies are getting ever more pronounced in their moves for aggression against the DPRK, urgently requires the DPRK to bolster up its nuclear war deterrence exponentially," KCNA quoted him as saying.
"The nuclear force of the DPRK will strongly deter, control and manage the enemy's reckless moves and provocations with its high war readiness, and carry out its important mission without hesitation in case of any unwanted situation," he added.
On Sunday, South Korea and Japan reported the launch of a North Korean short-range ballistic missile off the east coast, the latest in a series of missile tests in recent weeks.
North Korea has responded fiercely to combined military exercises between South Korea and the US, labeling them a practice for an invasion against it.
Since the beginning of the month, the allies have been conducting a variety of regular yearly drills, including Sunday's air and sea exercises with U.S. B-1B strategic bombers.
The US and South Korea navies and marine corps are set to kick off their first large-scale Ssangyong amphibious landing exercises in five years on Monday for a two-week run until April 3.
In the previous month, the two countries conducted tabletop drills to simulate a nuclear attack from North Korea in response to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's call for increased trust in the United States' extended deterrence policy, which refers to the country's ability to use military force, particularly nuclear forces, to prevent attacks on its allies.
In another dispatch, KCNA said more than 1.4 million North Koreans have volunteered to join or re-enlist in the military to fight against Seoul and Washington, up from some 800,000 reported by a state newspaper just two days before.
Source: Reuters
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