Kim oversees simulated nuclear counterattack against US, South Korea

• North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has overseen drills simulating a nuclear counterattack against the U.S. and South Korea in a warning to the allies who are scaling up their joint military exercises, state media KCNA said on 20 Mar.
• The North’s drills involved a short-range missile launch but – unusually – the missile flew from a buried silo, which analysts say would help improve speed and stability in future tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM).
• KCNA said the exercises on 18 and 19 Mar were designed to boost the country’s “war deterrence and nuclear counterattack capability,” accusing Washington and Seoul of making an “explicit attempt to unleash a war” against it.
• “The drill also aimed to demonstrate our tougher will to make an actual war response and send a stronger warning to the enemy who expand their war drills for aggression,” KCNA said.
• Kim said the exercises improved the military’s war capability and urged the military to stand ready for any “immediate and overwhelming nuclear counterattack anytime.”
• “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.

External Link : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/north-koreas-kim-calls-nuclear-preparedness-against-us-south-korea-kcna-2023-03-19/